Making A Swift Recovery

Abigail had a few more busy days Tuesday and Wednesday. Following heart surgery Monday she was moved to the Cardiac Pod of the PICU. She came back with her chest closed up, on a ventilator, oxygen, and a pace maker. She came off the ventilator 530am Tuesday morning and started very small feedings later that afternoon. The chest tube, used to drain off fluid, was removed on Tuesday as well. At 12am this morning, the pace maker was discontinued.
As the morning progressed we found out that our stay in the PICU would be short lived. Abigail was recovering from her heart surgery very well and quicker than we had expected. She had her foley catheter, pacing wires, arterial line, and central line removed by eleven am this morning.

Tuesday Pictures

All of the equipment, in a nice, quite room. Crazy huh!

Abby and Mom

A little swollen but looking great!

Sucker for tiny fingers!

A visit from Great Uncle Doug and Grandaddy Joe

Wednesday Pictures

This pretty girl was looking good today!

Resting after several lines were taken out.

Mom and Dad's friend Blake B meeting Abby.

Cousin Lindsey and Mom.

Getting ready for my trip.

Moving time!

After a few visitors, we were headed back to the NICU around 2pm. Leaving was bittersweet because we had a nice, quite, large room all to ourselves and a relaxed visitation policy. However, we are pleasantly surprised by her rapid recovery. Several of the NICU staff members were shocked to see Abigail back so soon.

Abby is all settled in back in the NICU and will continue her recovery there. They will gradually increase her feeding sizes and ween her off of the small amount of oxygen she is still using. Over the coming days we will watch the liver closely to see how it will respond. Thank you for your prayers, I have no doubt that they were heard. Our little girl is incredibly strong! By no means are we out of the woods, so continue to pray for her. We look forward to sharing good news with you all.

Resting in the NICU after a long day.