No news is good news? (Or just a busy week)

I wish there was more exciting news to share, but we are still here at CHEO (26 days and counting), trying to get through this recovery period.  The good news is that Elyse's respiratory virus has run it's course and her lungs have completely cleared.  The bad news is she's still in withdrawal and it really, really sucks.

the smiles are slowly returning

As we continue to wean her off the medications, each change in dose has been met with a variety of symptoms ranging from insomnia and irritability to sweating and vomiting.  We are starting to see her old personality start to return, but as she continues to be more alert during the day she is definitely needing a lot of hands-on attention and extra cuddles.

lots of cuddles

The biggest hurdle now is getting her back onto oral feeds.  We had worked our way back up to full-feed boluses every 3 hours through the NG tube, until she started having trouble keeping anything down and we switched back to continuous feeds to make it a little easier on her belly.  Today we will start shifting back towards bolus feeds and start again.

visit with Emmett

This has definitely been the most tiring stage of this journey so far.  Matt and I are doing 24hr shifts at the hospital, so we each get a chance to rest or catch up on things on our "days off".  There was talk of being able to go home this week, but that will all depend on how the next few days go.  Keeping our fingers crossed that the end is in sight!