Amazing Madelyn Grace: More changes of more plans.
Good afternoon! Lots of things have been happening today, so here’s an update:
We were expecting that maybe they would be able to remove Madelyn’s breathing tube today. Her lungs were doing well breathing on her own this morning and overall everything seemed to be going to plan. After a blood test showed that her CO2 was too high and her secretions had increased, they decided that the tube needed to stay. As frustrating as that news was, we understand that her doctors and respiratory therapists have a better idea of what’s going and are just trying to keep everything running smoothly. But man, we sure were excited about being able to talk to her again. All in due time, but I can’t lie that we’re upset.
With that being said, they plan on putting in another tracheotomy around 7:30 tomorrow morning. Her lungs, while on the mend, are still too weak for her to breath on her own. We are very glad to get that tube out and be able to see her face a little better, and we hope that the trach allows for more help in the healing process of her lungs. The way we understand the trach process takes around 2 weeks before it can be completely removed.
Her feet bandages are off and they look great! They’ve added on some new bandages to her face that have silver in them. Apparently they help heal the burns a little faster; science is crazy! They’ve been using them on her hands as well.
She’s been coughing a lot more today and has a lot more secretions than normal, so they anticipate that pneumonia might be starting to come in. Part of me thought maybe we dodged the pneumonia bullet but it might have crept in on us. No worries though. This is just how this is supposed to play out.
She still has moments of being awake and alert, and she’ll flash us a smile or an eye roll every once in a while. She is still following the nurses commands, but to her everyday is the same and she still doesn’t remember why she is where she is. We know that this will change after they stop sedating her but it does feel like a never ending cycle. We show her pictures and videos of everyone’s prayers and sweet messages and she just smiles her big ol’ smile behind the tube.
Thank you to everyone who has sent a card or a poster to Madelyn! We love looking at and reading all of them and we can’t wait to show Madelyn how loved she is by her community.
We’ll update if any other big news happens today. If not, I’ll post anyway just a tell y’all sweet dreams.
(Sappy little moment just for my sake: thank you for all of the love on these updates. Being able to write it all out has been very healing and helpful for me as we go through all of the things, and it makes me proud that so many of you care enough about Madelyn to jack up my analytics on lillyowens.com. I appreciate the kindness, and I don’t quite know what I’ll do with my life once Madelyn is better. Maybe just document her daily activities. She can hire me for PR, but baby I ain’t cheap. Thanks again, much love!)
Psalm 119:143 - Trouble and distress have come upon me, but your commands give me delight.
