Day #4 - Big Day

More good news all around. We are now on the ward. We moved from the I.C.E. unit this afternoon. It is so much more relaxed and Abbi already seems to be a bit more comfortable with her surroundings. We currently don't have a roommate, so we will enjoy every moment of silence! On the ward there is 1 nurse to 3 patients, and they only do checks every 4 hours. So definitely much more laid back.

Abbi has been sleeping most of the afternoon, which is good. She was up for most of the morning because various things kept on waking her up. They pulled the chest tube, she got an x-ray, a chest echo, and probably every other basic test one can get. So she never really seemed to get a chance to get a good snooze in. Once we were finally settled in her room she was sleeping right away.

Rob was able to feed her quite a bit of lunch, but she then needed to take some of her diurectic and that caused her to gag, which made her lose her lunch - literally. Poor girl. She got morphine to take out her chest tube this morning, and apparently that makes them nauseous. So now we are taking it slow with food, but trying to get all the liquid we can into her. She is not taking in a lot of fluids so that means she is not putting out a lot either. Right now they are giving her two diurectics, Lasix & some other one (so many drugs, so many names...). Both work in different ways, and kind of compliment each other.

They need to see more drainage in the fluid around her heart before they will pull the two side tubes. Hopefully tomorrow's chest echo will show reduced fluid, so that those tubes can get pulled. Every tube, wire, and bandage that gets removed is not only more comfortable for Abbi, but also one step closer to going home.

Of course no one is talking about going home as of yet. I still think we have a few more days ahead of us. I think I'm just stunned at how quickly she is moving along. It literally almost was just yesterday that she was having open heart surgery. Here we are, exactly 72 hours from when she came out of surgery on Thursday (5:45pm). It is just amazing how well she is doing and how quickly her recovery is coming along.

I again want to thank all of you well wishers and those of you who are praying for our little girl! We believe God's hand is very evident in Abbi's progress and are so grateful!

As for visiting, we would be willing to have some visitors now that we have our own space (or at least more of it). We would just ask that you call or e-mail prior to coming so we have a heads up. If you happen to be in the area and want to pop in that is OK too, but if we are in the middle of something we may not be able to accommodate you. Unit 4C4, Room 4c4-06. Her room has a little "T-Rex" sign on it (all the rooms are named after different dinosaurs, so cute!).

We are facing the LRT station as well as the Edmonton Clinic that is under construction. If you know Abbi you know she LOVES trains and anything like cranes or big machines. So I'm hoping we can get her up in the next couple days to see her amazing view!

Much love,
The Nepper Team