The inventory of tubes and wires got a lot shorter yesterday evening. Ellie was quite active during the day yesterday and wanted to squirm in her bed a lot. Over the course of the day this dislodged the epidural in her spine, which had to be removed at bedtime last night along with her foley catheter.

That leaves:

1. 1 NG Tube to suction
2. 1 G tube draining to gravity
3. 3 EKG leads (to monitor her heart and breathing while she rides the morphine wave)
4. 1 central line that branches to three spearate pumps
5. 1 peripheral IV line in her right hand.
6. 1 Pulse/Oxygen meter

We are down to 8 lines/wires and a new pain management strategy. We even got her out for a stroll this afternoon in a 'go cart' the modified whellchair that lets us bring pumps and drain bottles with us:

Ellie slept well last night on morphine doses every few hours along with a steady stream of Toradol, the new fangled pain med that helps wean away from heavy meds to more reasonable meds like motrin and tylenol. Every now and then she gets uncomfortbale but that lasts only as long as it takes to get the nurse to hit the Patient Controlled Adminsitration (PCA) button and give her some more drugs.

Ellie has been in a mommy phase for a few weeks. She has no interest in me and wants mommy whenever things aren't great (and even sometimes when they are). This has been good fun until this week when Abby can't leave the room. She will hit the 84 hour mark tonight at 7. Three and a half days without going home.

She is a rockstar. And it doesn't look good for tonight even though I have my stuff here for the overnight.

Super Mommy!!!