February 27th 2017, 0900

Happy First Week of Life Arlyn! This morning they have decided her chest could be closed and we were able to go down and listen to rounds and give her lots of love and kisses before they started the sterile OR procedure at the bedside. The big plan for today is to close her chest and see how she does. Much of the intervention that they had done yesterday has paid off today. Arlyns lab work overall looked stable her Albumin was better but the feel that loss is from her chest tube. Her calcium is hold for now they started her on a calcium drip yesterday and increased the rate overnight but previously in the time frame she was on the calcium drip she would have received several does of calcium but only needed one overnight by the time we came to visit this morning. Her kidney levels (creatine) bumped a little bit but her BUN went from 19 to 17. You could physically see that her puffiness is better in her face and arms but still has quite a bit of swelling in the base of her head and truck. She is having plenty of wet diapers so overnight was great.

We should meet with neurology this morning and meet Dr. Robert Tompkins-Stone who actually was my multiple sclerosis doctor for years and left the M.S. center and transferred to pediatric neurology so I trust him sincerely knowing the doctor that he is. Currently they are following her phenobarbitol level to adequately treat her seizures.

So for the procedure she was placed back on the paralytic and pain medication to adequately sedate her for the procedure. They were not certain if they would close her completely or use a wound vac to help with closure. Either way her chest should be closed in a little bit.