Lucy Kate Update XI

Lucy still has fluid near her left lung inside the pleural cavity. It's constricting how far her lung can expand to oxygenate her blood and she will continue to receive oxygen through a nasal cannula until it dissipates. She's being given a diuretic to help force the fluid out of her body, but it's obviously not targeting the fluid directly in her lung.

Overall, her recovery is still slowly progressing forward. The echocardiogram of her heart that was taken yesterday showed the tricuspid valve and mitral valve have some regurgitation, so she could be a candidate for valve replacement once she gets older, but it's nothing alarming at this point. The echocardiogram also showed a small Ventricular Septal Defect (VSD) still in her heart, but again, nothing alarming yet. We are still waiting to speak with the cardiology surgery team and surgeon about the results.

Lucy has been extremely fussy and crying a lot for the past five days. We recently stopped medication that we believe was causing her increased irritability. She is almost back to her regular feeding amounts and schedule. She's finally keeping milk down and working to get her weight back to where she was before surgery. She'll be a chunk again in no time.

We will be discussing our plan with the doctors today to determine a goal for leaving the hospital. Lucy is growing tired of laying in bed at the hospital and is ready to have more fun at home. I can't blame her, we are too.