Baby Blues

I saw Clare's baby blues this morning... I slept again in the parent dorm last night, and when I arrived at Clare's bedside this morning, she had made great strides overnight. She was completely weaned off her vent pressure and the paralytic and had already stirred a bit. She is still heavily sedated and on morphine, but she does open her eyes and try to look around, especially when the nurse is doing something on her. The nurse said she can hear my voice, so I've been talking to her and telling her about all the people who love her and who are praying for her. She is somewhat agitated when she is "awake," which of course causes her blood pressure to rise, so we've been trying to keep her content and asleep. But it was wonderful to see those beautiful eyes.

I met with Clare's surgeon this morning. Her chest x-ray showed more improvement over yesterday with the fluid in her lungs. His plan this morning is to remove the leads that are directly on her heart. If that goes well, then he will remove the chest tubes (tubes inserted into her chest to drain fluid from around the heart) and stitch up those incisions. He said she "has turned the corner" and is doing great. He said there may be a possibility of doing another cath while she is in here to do some work on her pulmonary side, but that will be up to her cardiologist. She will at least have an echo to see how her aortic patch looks, and they can look at her pulmonary side then.