Day 48: Wow, forty eight days already?

Another pretty good day for Lily! She is still doing fairly well on the ventilator, which has been set at between 35-40% for most of the day. She is still tolerating her feeds well and she lost another 10 grams, which is good! The diuretic is working, and her lungs are sounding a little better.

For the time being, doctors have decided not to treat the inflammation/potential infection of the trachea- tomorrow's culture results may change their views on that, though. Right now their main focus is on clearing up the fluid in her lungs, so they are continuing the diuretic for another day or so. Once the fluid is cleared up, they plan on extubating her and trying the SiPAP again. Could be one, two, maybe three more days. The only thing that would change that is if her 2nd tracheal culture (results tomorrow) comes back as "strong" positive, as opposed to only "weak" positive, which was the result of last Friday's test. We'll cross that bridge if we get to it...

Otherwise, Lily is really starting to look more like a baby, and less like a preemie. Her proportions are more "normal", and she really looks quite comfortable. She is waking up a bit more and is back to her feisty self... She tugs at her tracheal tube, trying to pull it out. Poor kid. But there's a silver lining- it means she's more alert and more aware of her surroundings than she was over the weekend- which is great! (not to worry, she can't pull her vent tube out, it's secured in place with medical tape.)

I have a thing about posting pictures of Lily on the ventilator, which is why I haven't. If I was on a ventilator, I wouldn't want someone posting pics to Facebook.  Would you?  Maybe one of these days, when she's breathing completely on her own, I'll post a before and after. For now, I can only promise you that she looks  comfortable- she is looking better, has good color -she's looking more like a baby, and less like a preemie. Good stuff! I'll get pictures up as soon as she's back on the air mask.

Over 25,000 views now, wow! Thank you all for following Lily's story! Thank you for the prayers and positive energy sent her way- she is a real fighter, and despite the lungs and setback on the ventilator, she is still really doing relatively well. No surgeries, no brain damage... Both are tremendously good things! We really do have a lot to be thankful for... and we look forward to taking our little girl home more and more every day!