Lexi Update after surgery!

Here is the update that Lexi's mom left for everyone on their Caring Bridge Journal:

Friday, November 20, 2009 9:58 AM, EST

Thank you so much to everyone who has wished us a successful surgery. We truly appreciate all of the texts, calls and messages on our site. It makes us feel overjoyed to know we have so many supporters.

It also breaks up the days of waiting patiently for a successful recovery. I actually look forward to reading my guestbook to see who has written!

Anyway, back to the news everyone wants to know. Alexis had a fairly good night last night in the PICU. Because the surgery went so well she could have stayed on a regular floor last night but the surgeons wanted to lean on the safe side. When she first came back from surgery her pain was extremely bad but tolerable enough to talk a little. She was being very carefel not to move since she had a lot of pain in her belly. She was on a morphine drip that gives her additional medicine every 6 minutes if she pushes the button. The tough thing for her was keeping up with the medicine. We couldn't get her to click the button unless we would tell her to hit it as she drifted in and out of sleep. She slept fairly well. Around 3 am I woke up and stayed awake for a while so I could get her caught back up with some additional medicine. Then when the doctor's started coming in at 6 am I would have her hit the button to give an extra boost. Around 8 am Alexis woke me up in utter pain. She was so miserable she did not want to talk at all. She just wanted me to get daddy who was in the parent accomodations room that they have for PICU parents. It actually has a full size bed in it! We then started working on getting more pain medicine in her. When I went to take my shower the pain doctor came in and decided to increase the basal dose of medicine as well as the extra dosage when she hits her button. This time though it only gives her more medicine every 12 minutes since it is a higher dosage. The surgeon also came in and said that Alexis's numbers look great! She will definitely be changing rooms today-where I am not sure. But if you sent an ecard using the childrens hospital site don't worry about it, it will still get to her. She will also have the catheter taken out. The goal for the next few days will be getting her up and walking around so her lungs will expand to prevent pnemonia. If she can't get up because of he pain, there are a few other options for her like blowing bubbles. I guess we will just have to see how she feels. We are not allowed to use our cell phones in the PICU but once we switch rooms we will be able to again. Hopefully this will be out last room switch, since this will be the 3rd room we have been in since Wednesday!

Well we will continue to keep you posted. '

Oh, I almost forgot. The other day when I was talking about how busy of a week we have had, I forgot to include a very exciting part of our week. On Tuesday, I took Alexis to her classroom for the first time! I will type more in a few minutes.

She has not updated it since, but I have talked to her and they have given her some magnesium and put her on oxygen because of her oxygen levels going down while she is sleeping. Jen was not sure why they were giving her magnesium but they are supposed to answer that question for her today. She also said that Lexi is not really talking to anyone much because of the pain she is in. She is the type that when she gets mad or upset or something along that line, she is mad at the world and doesn't talk to anyone unless she has to.

Feel free to hop over to her Caring Bridge site and read about her and leave them a word of encouragement.