24 Hours

We've made it 24 hours post-surgery. That was a big goal for Clare. She continues in stable condition. She has made more progress today towards recovery, mainly that the pressure in her ventilator has been decreased (the amount of pressure needed to inflate her lungs so she continues to circulate oxygen throughout her body), and she is doing well with these slow pressure decreases. This is one of the measures that was put in place last night to get her out of trouble. She will slowly be weaned off this pressure, and then will just be on the ventilator without any pressure at all and her body will do the circulation by itself. So it's good news that she is tolerating the weaning process. There is still fluid in her lungs, and we have to wait until her chest x-ray in the morning to see if the fluid has decreased at all.

Another big step is that her doctors are pretty sure any swings in blood pressure now are due to sedation. Her nurse noticed that Clare's pressure went high every time they fiddled with her - check lines, change medications, etc. Therefore, they believe that she is not under enough sedation and can feel these changes in her environment. So they have added another sedative to her long list of medications to see if this makes a difference in the blood pressure changes. If it does, this will be great news because it means Clare's pressure changes are not due to any problems with her heart (which was the cause of the concern last night).

She is still very sick, but is making her baby steps towards getting better. Hopefully tomorrow, her chest x-ray will show that the fluid is going down, and her surgeon will feel it is safe to close her breastbone and chest incision. From there, the next goal will be to come off the ventilator.

Thank you as always for the continued prayers, love, and support.
"Cast your burden upon the Lord and He will sustain you." --Psalm 55:22