24 Hours

It has been about 24 hours since surgery and Grace is doing a lot better.  As expected she is still not very comfortable but considerably better than last night.   It's funny, but she does look a little different without her omphalocele.  She still has a large ventral hernia left that will be repaired another day and is much smaller than before.  We are hoping that this will make it easier for her to move around, roll-over, crawl, and even walk.

We just heard from the general surgeons that she can have her nasogastric tube out - even Deb doesn't know this since she is home sleeping.  Deb took the night shift last night while I curled up at home.  Lucky me. Deb was relegated to the firmest pull-out chair ever.

On other news, Graceis finally making urine.  She was pretty dehydrated after surgery yesterday and got a lot of iv fluid overnight.  She looks a little puffy with a swollen little face, but that will go away.  All we need now is her bowels to move and we can start her on some food.

Yesterday went well.  As I mentioned the surgery was complicated by her malrotation.  Hopefully correcting it at this age will prevent her from having a problem later.  We had wonderful support as usual.  Deb's Mom and my Mom and brother came to lend a hand.  It was great to have them all here and I think they will be returning later in the week.  We also had help from one of my patients who works at Riley.  She lined up a good anesthesiologist, and OR and recovery team for Gracie.  We felt as if the red carpet had been rolled out for us.  Thank you!