12 days out from surgery

Okay, so surgery went pretty well but we have had some ups and downs since then. Gracie is still on the ventilator. Last Saturday, they tried to take her off and she just was not ready and one of her lungs collapsed so back on she went. They have kept her pretty sedated and sleepy most of the time. She also developed an infection in her lungs called Pseudomonas so they have her on three or four antibiotics

I talked to the cardiologist on Friday and he was not very hopeful that the repair was going to work with Gracie because of the leakage and fluid that was still on her lungs. He said that he thinks that there was going to be a chance greater than 90% that she will have to have a valve replacement very soon.

Last night right before bed, I called to check on Gracie and the nurse said that she was having some breathing difficulties. Being overly protective, I went up there and you could definitely tell she was struggling at each and every breath. They upped the sedation medicine hoping to calm her down, but this morning ended up changing out the ventilator, tubing, and whole thing. Gracie was doing much better today and was resting peacefully. They sent out another culture to see if the infection is still there and we hopefully will know results by Tuesday, but if all goes as planned (I don't know what that is) then Gracie will probably have her mitral valve replace within the next couple of weeks. Please keep praying that she is gaining strength each and every day and that the doctors and nurses that take care of Gracie do whatever is the best thing for her. I told one of the nurses yesterday that I guess we would just have to have her 1st birthday party in the ICU!! It is a very difficult time for all of us and right now the waiting game is just making sure we have patience!