Aili's Chest is CLOSED!

So yesterday (12/17/08) they closed Aili's chest. They had originally told us at 9 am they might, but of course they didn't do it then. So when we showed up the nurse let us know that it looked like they would do it at 1 pm. So we hung out for a bit, asked the nurse questions, and went and ate some food. The nurse told us that all of Aili's levels were great, which was one reason they wanted to close her up. You could also see that the patch over her chest was getting close to leaking, which wouldn't be good because then bacteria could get in...so it was good they were going to close her up. The nurse did say that on her x-ray from that morning it showed the upper left part of the lung was partially collapsed. They said it was probably from extra fluid in there and once they went in, cleaned up, closed her and cleaned out her drainage tube she should be good. So after eating we went back to talk to anesthesia and then they took her back. As soon as they started getting all of her cords and stuff ready to roll her away she just started crying and crying. Since she is on the ventilator, you can't hear her cry, but you can see her trying her hardest. She was bright red and looked just like she was crying. We walked back with her as far as we could. She was only gone a little over an hour. She came back and was doing great. We stayed with her for a few minutes to make sure she was settled and doing well. Then we went to do some Christmas shopping with our friend Corrin, that we met at the hospital. She works there and we usually go talk to her every night before we leave. So we did some Christmas shopping and got something to eat. We went back later and she was still doing pretty good. Her heart rate had been pretty high though...like 170's-low 180's. So they were giving her extra fluid to help with that. They also gave her some extra morphine to see if that would help. I was tired so I fell asleep on the little couch thing and Clay played on the computer. I guess while I was sleeping her stats started beeping. The nurse jumped up and went over to her. Clay said that her O2 stat was really low...like 18%. So two of the nurses suctioned out some 'secretions' from her breathing tube/lungs. The nurse told Clay it was from the extra fluid. She was doing fine after that though. And the nurse kept frequently listening to her lungs to make sure it wasn't happening again.

Here are some pictures of her....the first are before she had her chest closed (12/16)...she was so awake and looking around : ). Then there are some after they closed it up (12/17).