Thursday's Thoughts

First a disclaimer... the photo above was actually taken early on Wednesday. I only posted it because that picture gives you an idea as to how her screws look (you can see them above her ear, sticking out from the middle of that white dressing). However, she's really doing much better than that picture would lead you to believe.

Before I get to that, just one more thing to point out about the picture above. In addition to the screws you'll notice what looks to be like a purple line above her neck on her jaw line. That's the incision made as they inserted the plate where the screws meet the extender on the jaw. She looks pretty similar on her other side as well.

As for how Gwendolyn is doing right now... much better than you'd think by seeing that photo. The swelling has gone down considerably. I actually didn't realize how much better she looks until I saw this picture and reminded myself what she had been like first-thing Wednesday morning. She's been taken off the incubation tube now and is currently getting only a 30 percent oxygen air mix in her less invasive nose tube. That's a great sign when you think about the fact that typical room air is just something like 22 percent oxygen.

Gwen also had the temporary feeding tube placed back through her nose into her stomach. This afternoon she had a whole half-once of breast milk. The occupational therapist swung by and said that she's pushing back the swallow study until the jaw expansion is complete. When you think about it, it makes since that you'd wait to gauge her ability to eat again until the jaw is completely in place. Still, she's going to start observing her sucking and hopefully get her using a bottle in small doses next week.

Since Gwen is off the respirator (fingers crossed that she continues her progress over night and can stay off it permanently) she can now be held. So, Mom got a to rock her daughter again this afternoon.

On a negative note, Gwen hasn't slept much. Even though they say she isn't in a lot of pain, she's still pretty uncomfortable as you can imagine. In fact, at one point last night was so agitated by the screws that the nurse had to stop her from grabbing a hold of them and trying to take them out. Yeah, she got my patience too I think!

;)

Still, given what we knew to expect, Gwen is doing fabulous and can't wait for a long weekend visit with Nana and Poppa!

We'll keep you posted... talk to you later.