Sunday, February 11, 2007

One night down, Six to go


We made it through our first night without PN without any noticeable side effects.

It was a little bit nerve-wracking for us since it required new plumbing of her IV lines to run just one fluid in but we figured it out and made it through just fine.

We also managed to deal with our pessimism that is attached to new things with her care. We were both sure that Ellie's night off of PN would be accompanied by a trip to the ER for some unknown reason. It is just the way things seem to work with Gut Girl sometimes

Fortunately, we had a smooth night without a hiccup.

A night off of PN wasn't all that much different than a night on PN. Instead of PN with its amino acids and vitamins, Ellie was hooked up to a steady stream of 'D5', a solution of 5% dextrose and saline at her normal PN time. This kept her hydrated and kept her blood sugar normal.

Regardless of the small difference, it is a big step and represents a step towards hopefully losing the PN all together at some point.

It sure would be nice to lose the central line and not have a huge infection liability sitting in the line of fire just under her nose:

If you look closely you can see bananas, sweet potatoes, cheerios and rice cereal...

That will come in time as we get her to eat more and more.

She hits 400 ml most days. 500 shouldn't be that hard by next Thursday.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Congrats on the first of many nights off the baby nectar. And a big congrats to Ellie for utilizing the Cheerio as a fashion accessory. Nice.

Barbara Krause said...

I think she needs one more Cheerio. You know, the fashion rule of decorating in 3's, or other odd numbers. Regardless, she's beautiful!!

kate said...

Even covered in mushy bananas, she is a beautiful girl.