ICU Day 5

10:39 AM: Today finds Myla doing well, though she alternates between stretches of sleep and agitation. She seems to be in pain when she is awake, so we're looking into solutions. They don't want her thrashing around, so perhaps they will give her sedatives. She was far more alert this morning than she even was last night. Myla tries to cry from time to time, but her voice isn't strong enough to make more than a light squeak.

They have also just begun to back her off the dopamine, one of the 2 drugs they have given her to make her heart work harder. The other drug is milrinone, and there is talk of slowly scaling that one back today as well.

We're sitting by Myla's bed watching her blood pressure--it's high at 132/86--and making sure that she breathes well. Ocassionally, the monitor's alarm will sound indicating that she isn't breathing. Sometimes that's the case, and we just have to shake her, but other times the connection to the monitor failed to pick up her respiratory rate.

11:32 AM: We just attended the daily rounds with the doctors, which is a briefing of Myla's condition during the last 24 hours along with what they plan to do during the next day. In short, they are planning to discontinue the dopamine immediately and ween her off of the milrinone.

11:00 PM: Myla was in and out of sleeping most of the day, but when she was awake, she wasn't a happy camper. She seems to have a fair amount of pain due to perhaps her mucositus, her bowels, and maybe even the irritation caused by the ventilator tube that had been in her throat. We made it through most of the day without calling for pain killers, but toward the evening hours some meds became needed. For the first time, we were able to hold Myla, and when I get a chance tomorrow, I'll post pictures of Myla being held by Melissa, Audrey our nurse, and Julie the master catkeeper. We are keeping a particular eye on Myla's blood pressure which had been high at times throughout the day and on her temperature which had been as low as 94.7 degrees. I'm anticipating that the main focus for tomorrow will be to begin weening Myla off the milrinone, which they haven't started to do yet. They will also continue to reduce her supply of oxygen. She is currently getting an air supply of 6 liters per _______? consisting of 30% oxygen. They'll reduce her to 4 liters tomorrow.

Tomorrow will also be a big day for Raul Matthew as he gets to cohost a hospital-wide TV broadcast of a Bingo game. That's about it from here. Thanks again for your prayers.