Hospital Update - 16

Besides just being more comfortable, Maggie is also breathing much better with the chest tubes removed.

Yesterday and today she seems hypernasal again, that is, the sound of her voice is like it was before her palate surgery. I ought to remember to ask about that during rounds tomorrow. Maybe it's nothing, or maybe they'd have her ENT stop by.

Gary asked during this morning's rounds what needs to be accomplished before Maggie is allowed to go home. They said they need to take an echo and x-rays and EKG twenty-four or more hours after the chest tubes are removed. So we're scheduled for an echo tomorrow morning at 10. But in light of the dire predictions of the weather forecasters, if she were to get sprung, we might not be able to drive home anyhow because of deep deep snow. (I need to remember to get my tennies out of the trunk so I'm not walking back over to RMH on Friday in my sandals ... through 10" of snow. LOL.)

I really don't think we'll be going home tomorrow, though. Maggie's tummy has not been doing well. She hasn't thrown up since she began drinking and eating yesterday. But things just haven't been settling well. She eats a little, and then starts feeling nauseous. That lasts 1-2 hours, and then she's fine again. She's hungry and wants to eat, but when she does, it makes her feel cruddy. So she's been avoiding food. The nurse and doctor decided to put her on Zofran which will settle her tummy and allow her to start getting some more calories into herself, and enough liquid to not dehydrate. At this point, she simply couldn't go home because, without the IV, she couldn't keep herself hydrated due to the nausea. So hopefully the meds will have an effect by middle of the day tomorrow. The doctor on rounds tonight said she expected we'd be going home "this weekend."