PICU Day 2

Alondra had a very quiet night. That's just what we want. She needs to be still and sleep so her airway can heal. Dr. Brown made his rounds early (he's the ENT that assisted with surgery yesterday). He changed the bandage on Alondra's neck and I got my first look at the incision. It is smaller than I expected, and hopefully it'll heal well so the scar isn't visible. There's a small flexible tube still in the wound to help drain any fluid that may want to collect under the skin. Dr. Brown said it looks great and they'll likely remove that tube tomorrow.

The on duty PICU intensivist made several unsuccessful attempts at inserting her NG-tube yesterday. The NG-tube is a small feeding tube that needs to go through the nose and all the way past the stomach into the intestine. It takes several hours between each attempt because they want to check that the tube is in the right spot with an x-ray before they can start using it. Overnight Sue (Alondra's night nurse) got the job done. When I arrived this morning she had a big smile on because she had her first look at the x-rays confirming she had done it. Of course they can't start using the NG-tube until a doctor reads the x-ray. But there was quite the end zone celebration between Sue, Lori, and Jen at nurse shift change. Nurses 1, Doctors 0 - not that they're keeping score or anything. Anyway, Alondra should be getting her formula by now.

Lori and Jen are watching Alondra today. Jen is Lori's trainee and Lori was one of Luke's primary nurses in the PICU. Lori asked to be assigned to Alondra this week. When I left Jen was settling in for a long boring day (just what we want) while Lori and Deanna were catching up. As long as Alondra is able to sleep with all that talking, it's all good.