"She's a Tough Little Baby"

Payton continues to do well.

As expected her x-ray today shows her GJ tube (into her intestines) is not as far down as it needs to be but it is in her intestines.  They will watch it and hope it goes far enough or they will try to feed her through it and she how she tolerates it.  Until then they'll keep her nose tube (NJ) in just in case (so we may not avoid a tube on her face for a couple more weeks).

Her MIC KEY tube is good and is already draining her stomach.

Right now Payton has 14 things attached or coming out of her (5 attached and 9 coming out of her).  The great news is we don't think they could possibly add anymore (the vent was the 1st to go last night) and from here she should be rapidly dropping things off.

1st should be her 2 extra IV's which will make holding at least one of her hands much easier.

The temp surgeon (to cover for the reg. surgeon's holidays) stopped by this morning to see Payton.  Here's their basic conversation to illustrate how well Payton's doing.

Nurse: Payton came off the vent last night at around 8:30pm and has been doing well since.
Surgeon: Came off the vent last night??  So how has her pain tolerance been??
Nurse: Good, she's had a few unsettled moments this morning but she calms down with her soother.  She's on Tylenol no need for morphine.
Surgeon: Wow,  she's a tough little baby.

She's less puffy today but they will still give her a bit of a diuretic.  They are also giving her another transfusion today because her hemoglobin is quite low.  Normally they want the babies to try to build up their own because its good for them to have to but they did say that for a Diaphragmatic Hernia baby (one who's lungs are still small for her size even if they're working well) and the fact that she's trying to heal from surgery is enough for her to be dealing with, why create another problem.