Cautious Excitement

Well, there were several things about Friday that left me with a smile on my face in retrospect.

Gwendolyn's been doing so well with her breathing that they have tried taking the oxygen off her all together. So far, she's been maintaining exceptional blood-oxygen percentage so that's a plus. Hopefully we'll see her still be oxygen-free on Saturday.

Also, she's getting her feedings increased by five milliliters each time. I believe that she was up to a full ounce at dinner on Friday. Hopefully, we can get her back up to three ounces soon, which is where she was prior to surgery. The return to normal sized feedings will only make her stronger moving forward.

Gwendolyn got a visit yesterday from the plastic surgeon that performed her procedure. He said he was very impressed with her progress in just a few days. He also said that her levels were a very positive given the fact that we're only four millimeters into the process. Again, they think that 10-12 millimeters will be all it takes to correct Gwen's jaw issues in its entirety but they put in a total of 20 in case we need to go a little farther to clear her tongue from her airway.

The occupational therapist also came to give us some cheek muscle stimulation exercises today. The goal is to make sure we help the muscles in that area adjust to the new extended jaw. At some point next week, we're also going to work on some small feedings with a bottle to reacquaint Gwen with eating via nipple. We want to be sure and prepare her for the swallow study. Hopefully that can take place in a week to 10 days. If her jaw extension can stay on schedule and Gwen is able to pass the swallow test by ensuring that none of her feeding is getting bypassed into her lungs, my personal belief is we could get discharged by Thanksgiving. That would be a true reason to be thankful!

As you can see from today's photo, Gwen was also excited to see her Nana and Poppa again... of course not as excited as Nana and Poppa were to see her.

Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately), my daughter has maintained her attitude throughout this process. On Friday, she got fed up with the IV in her foot and kicked it out. They had to start a new one in her hand. A little later, she pulled the feeding tube all the way out through her nose. I just can't wait for those teenage years to arrive!

Oh well... a little spunk is what she'll need for continued healing!!!

BTW, I'm sorry that the blog's format has been strange these last couple of entries. I don't know what the issue is... I'm sure it's something I'm doing incorrectly. The sad part is that combined with my poor spelling and grammar makes me wonder why you are all still following along. Something tells me it has EVERYTHING to do with the subjects!

;)

Have a great weekend all...