Post-Op Day 5

Sorry no pictures today, just the news:
Ruby's fever continues to drive her heart rate up. Her temperature has been hovering around 38 degrees C all day, occasionally spiking to 38.5 degrees. The blood and urine cultures that were taken over the last few days still have not indicated any kind of infection, which has made us feel a little safer. The cardiologist on call tonight feels as though her fever is a result of her inflammation and/or reaction to all of the plastic tubing still inside her body.

Surgery still has not placed a new G tube inside Ruby's stomach. We were hoping they would have acted quicker in order to prevent the already exisiting track from closing. But it's Saturday, and you know the old saying, "Don't get sick on the weekends!" It's like pulling teeth just getting the doctors and nurses to talk to surgery on our behalf. If Ruby's track closes then she will have to undergo another surgery after she has healed well enough from this ordeal. This means that when she is ready to eat she will have to have a tube going into each of her nostrils. One going into her stomach to vent her, an NG tube, and one going into her intestine to feed her, an NJ tube. This will undoubtedly make her miserable, and we will be facing a constant battle to prevent her skilled little hands from ripping out the tubes. By the time we get surgery's attention it will be Monday, and her track will probably be closed. It's extremely frustrating that no one seems concerned about this except for Dan and I.

Other events of note: Ruby continues to wake and struggle with pain, but she is able to fall back asleep with less and less medicine. The doctors tried to wean Ruby off some of her medications but her blood pressure became a bit too low so they needed to resume the treatment. She is being successfully weaned from the ventilator, however. The doctors feel as though she will be able to safely breathe on her own within a day or two. Slowly, very slowly, she seems to be moving forward.