Extubated!!

One of Todd's supervisors gave Scarlett this beautiful blown-glass Guardian Angel to protect Scarlett during her surgery and hospital stay. It has been at the head of her hospital bed ever since they brought Scarlett back from surgery. I also have the Guardian Angel prayer card that my mom gave me for Scarlett on her bed. Right now, Scarlett's resting again and listening to soft lullaby music on the hospital's portable CD player. she had a pretty eventful morning.

She *finally* got extubated (breathing tube pulled out and ventilator turned off) about 45 minutes ago! (yay!). It was pretty rough though. She was super pissed and put up quite a fight with Nurse Tiffany and Respiratory Therapist Ginger. She was really feisty and more than one nurse said "wow, she's strong!"   . . . That's my girl!! ;)  They also took out her catheter and now she'll just pee like normal in her diaper.

Now, she just has the oxygen tubes up her nose and no more ventilator tube in her mouth. Here are some before and after pictures:

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Ginger had to a lot of suctioning after the breathing tube was pulled because Scarlett sounded "junky". Which means she has a lot of built up secretion/fluid in her airways. They said they're gonna continue to suction her a lot today.

Tiffany changed Scarlett's art line (arterial intravenous line in her neck) dressing because it was getting bloody and Scarlett got super duper upset.  That was the second time a nurse said "wow, she's really strong!", because Scarlett was arching her back, and kicking and struggling. Her numbers went through the roof! and oxygen went 10 points down. Check it out:

Heart rate: 202! APB (arterial blood pressure) 97/55! Oxygen level 87!... but once she settled down, her numbers went back down. Right now heart rate is 143 (which is ideal), and her oxygen is 98 (again, ideal). ABP is 71/45 (also ideal). She's just sleeping/resting again. She had a rough morning! But she's on her way to coming home.