Day 33 - No More Tubes

Chloe seems to be on track to bowel/intestinal improvement. The doctor showed me her x-rays today and she looks much better. He turned the suction off her "refogal" tube but left it in for today to see how she does without suction. The "refogal" tube went down her throat and all the way into her belly and was suctioning out small amounts of fluid and air. They took it out Tuesday because nothing was coming out but then her belly filled up with air and became uncomfortably distended so they put it back in. Chloe has been producing extremely large amounts of saliva the past couple of days, though, and every time I look at her she has a huge foam beard of spit bubbles. It's cute and all but doesn't bode well for the tape holding her tube in place. She managed to pull her refogal tube out twice today so they finally decided to leave it out (rather than put her through reinsertion.) As of 10pm tonight her belly looked ok.

The two drainage tubes placed during her surgery have also managed to come out on their own, leaving a gaping hole in her side. The surgeon decided to leave it alone and try to let it close up/heal on its own. In the meantime they're keeping sterile gauze over it and carefully changing her diaper (the hole is pretty close to her diaper area) to try and keep out any bacteria.

Prayers for tonight:
-Chloe's bowel/intestines continue to improve so that they are strong enough to process feedings tomorrow.
-The nurses are vigilant in their cleansing and keep germs and bacteria away from her wound site avoiding infection.
-Comfort for Chloe as her body heals and grows.
-The rest of Chloe's body, like her lungs, continue to develop even as we're focusing on her digestive problems.

(Note: I use parentheses for medical words that I'm spelling phonetically. I have no idea how they're actually spelled and have more important things to do [like get to sleep] than research.)

On other fronts:
Solana's really enjoying Pre-K at our church. We are blessed to have found such a wonderful and nurturing place for her during this ridiculous amount of transition we're putting her through. I often look at her and think about how blessed I really am to have her.

I'm trying to figure out how to be a grown-up and homemaker again. I haven't managed the household since June and am remembering how much work it actually is when Dave, my Mom, or my sister aren't here cleaning and getting Solana ready every day. I've decided not to overdue it, though, and have committed to taking care of Solana and the dog, visiting Chloe, laundry, clean kitchen/bathroom, and unpacking one box per day. Other household chores are on an as-needed basis.

Dave seems to be getting over his cold and actually visited Chloe today after work. Then he picked up a small U-Haul and spent the rest of the evening at the old house loading up the rest of our stuff. I think all we have left is to finish cleaning and we'll finally be done with that house!