Mike and I quickly fell into a nice pattern that lasted the whole time we were in the hospital. We would spend all day in the room with Katie. At about 9pm, after we met the new nurse (shift changes at 7pm) we would head up to our room to relax. We would go to bed when ready and I would come down at 12am, 4am, and 8am to pump or feed Katie when the nurses would wake her up for vitals. At 9am Mike would come down so I could go back up and sleep a little more and get dressed. Then repeat!
On Day 2 at 9am, the nurse removed Katie's central line (neck IV) and the incision dressing. She said the central line removal was dramatic because it was held in place with sutures that had to be untied and they had to keep pressure on for 5 minutes to prevent bleeding. She said Katie tolerated the incision dressing removal pretty well. The incision was left exposed from then on. There were no visible sutures only glue that held the skin closed. It looked very good and scabbed over quickly. She also got to wear a shirt.
The central line was delivering the last heart medication, which means she was off of it by 9am. At that point all we were waiting on was a dirty diaper, showing her bowels were functioning, before she could eat.
Once the central line was removed we were able to pick her up whenever we wanted. The nurses had to help us before because the lines in her arteries (central and arterial lines) would cause many problems if they accidentally pulled out.
By 11am she was off the oxygen!
At 2pm Katie was moved into a private room and a full crib. The private room was awesome. Mike and I had a full couch and rocking chair, we could also eat in the room. By 2:30pm Katie was able to attempt her first feeding which went very well. The doctor was only hoping she would latch on, but Katie managed a full feeding!
Once she had a few more successful feedings they stopped giving her IV fluid. By that evening, they only had to take her vitals every four hours.
No comments:
Post a Comment