Sorry about the delay in posting. When Olivia is awake, it's hard to get away. I also went home for a sleepover and for Jack's P/T conferences, so I've been busy!
Anyway, Olivia is doing awesome! Great progress. She's lost lots of her meds. I even got to hold her! I have pictures, so I'll update more later and post those when I have a little more time.
They extubated today! Olivia is off the vent. They did it right at 2:00 and she has handled it well so far. She is very hoarse, but we did get to hear her cry! I even got a smile this evening. They weaned off a lot of her sedation (I think a bit too much, if you ask me). I won't be too surprised if they go up a bit. She just needs to work on coughing on her own and getting that junk out. She looks great and I can tell she is super excited to be without the tube. Now we just need to keep it out!
We are still making slllllooooowwww progress. The intensivist today did say he would like to extubate by the end of the week. He just wants to take things slow. No kidding. We did make two vent changes today. Maybe we'll even get to make another one tomorrow. (Oh, any PICU nurses that keep up to date on here, don't mention my sarcasm to Dr. D. He may try to slow things down even more ;)
Our excitement for the day - we are off isolation. No more yellow masks and gowns! Yippee. Also, they have elected NOT to do the bone marrow aspiration during this admission. Her counts are still up and staying that way, so there is no reason to do it now. If her blood counts are still up in a few months, she is probably out of the woods. If they drop, they will plan to do the biopsy as an outpatient procedure then.
Here are the pictures from the indoor easter egg hunt yesterday. That just doesn't seem right, does it?:
Jack
Emmy, Tyler, & Aunt Carrie
This is when my camera ran out of batteries. Sorry I didn't get any more pictures.
What a strange day. It snowed off and on for most of the day, but the Easter Bunny was still able to make it to Grandpa and Grandma's house. He did have to hide his eggs inside though since it just didn't seem right to hunt for eggs in snow pants! Anyway, the kids had a good day celebrating with family.
Olivia is still doing wonderful. It's getting to that frustrating point where we are making such little changes. I feel like she is ready to get off the vent, but no one wants to push her. That's fine. We understand that she likes to take things slow, but come on already! The rumors are that it should be within the next couple of days.
The bone marrow biopsy is still scheduled for tomorrow, but the intensivists don't think Olivia needs to have it done right now and subject her to something else. On one hand, we agree that we don't want her to be subjected to a possible setback, but we don't want to come back and have to have it done at a later date either. We'll see which set of doctors wins out on this one. It will be our entertainment for tomorrow to see who wins!
Anyway, I'll have to post Easter pictures tomorrow. I lost my camera somewhere in the house today.
Olivia got rid of a machine today! They were able to get her nitric oxide completely off and the machine is officially out of the room! This is awesome. She's still doing great. The next goal is to get the ventilator settings down. Once the settings are low enough, they will do some CPAP trials. Last time Olivia was on a vent and they tried this, she didn't like it so much and they ended up just pulling the tube on out. She's bigger now, so we'll see what happens.
They have also scheduled the bone marrow biopsy for Monday. I was hoping it would be tomorrow, but that's okay. I was actually hoping they would opt not to do it at all since her platelets were up so much, but they've been working their way back down, so I guess it's better to find out now then have to come back at a later date and do it anyway. So, great progress for Olivia.
Brooklyn had an appt. at the dentist yesterday. She was supposed to be getting a tooth fixed that she has chipped from grinding her teeth so badly. However, one of her molars has been bothering her, so I asked if they could address that one instead. Little did I know that this tooth was "so sick" that they had to do the whole shot, drill, fill with medicine, and put this putty stuff on top. We go back in 2 weeks to have a crown put on it. A crown for a 3 year old? I'm going to have to convince her it's just a small princess crown for her tooth. Why not just pull it, you ask? Because that would be too easy. No, I actually talked to another dentist and got a 2nd opinion. He agreed and gave me the whole medical reasoning behind it, so I suppose we'll go with it. It's a little late now anyway, since they drilled away half of her tooth. So they put her on amoxycillin to prevent infection. She woke up this morning with a fever and has had it off and on all day. Is it from the trauma of the dental work? Is it the amoxycillin? Who knows. We'll just keep pushing the Tylenol tonight and consult a doctor of some sort tomorrow.
The two ringbearers before the monkey suits!
Waiting for the party to start.
Watching the first dance. 
Taking a rest before more pictures.
Showing daddy her beautiful engraved bracelet from Uncle Ty & Aunt Jenn.
Uncle Ty (the groom). Just a bit nervous before the ceremony.Olivia is doing wonderful! They have started weaning down the Nitric Oxide. They are hoping to get it cut in half by morning and then we can go from there. She is very awake, but comfortable. She sucks away on her vent tube which is kind of cute to see. She does look like she got in a fight with one of the doctors, but it's really just from tape and laying on her cheek. She has a nice shiner on one eye and a bunch of red sores from removing tape (and skin) from her precious little face! Otherwise, there were no big changes today. The baby steps we are making are the ones that will get us where we need to be!
By the way, I love how everyone thinks I get up during the wee hours of the morning. It makes me sound so ambitious. I usually try to get to the hospital around 7:30 or 8:00. This blog just makes up its own time! Just wanted to clarify - I've had several comments on the times that I post in the last week or so;)
Wonderful trip. Relaxing weekend. Beautiful wedding.
Seeing Zac and the kids, a little sunshine, and a surprise visit from my cousin was just what I needed!
Olivia is doing awesome. They did a lot while I was gone, which I thought would make me crazy. It worked out just fine. The only time I was ready to hop on a plane was on Saturday morning when the intensivist called my cel. phone. My mom always calls with updates, but this time it was the doc. My stomach dropped. But, as it turns out, there were just so many changes that mom couldn't write them all down to relay them to me, so he just called himself. That was actually nice. Once I was able to breathe again from the initial scare, I could ask him all the questions I had and find out all the details. We were in contact most of the weekend.
Anyway, she is down to 7 pumps, off the paralytic, down on her sedation, down on her oxygen rates, and lots of other things. She is very awake, but doesn't seem to uncomfortable.
Like I said, there are tons of new things going on and obviously lots of details from the weekend. I slept in this morning (still on that FL time!) and I want to get back in to see her. I'm hoping to post details this afternoon - this is just a little update so you know she's doing great!!
Tomorrow is the day I'm supposed to go to Florida. I can't wait to see everyone. It's going to be very hard to leave Olivia, but I can call anytime and be home in 2.5 hours if need be. She's doing really well still. Just a few little blips here and there. They try to mess with things and she lets them know she's not ready. We'll get there - in Olivia time.
I won't be able to update while I'm in Florida, so pray for some exciting details when I get back to bloggin' on Monday night! Have a great weekend.
Check this out! 
Still the same, maybe one more machine?
So, I thought Olivia should at least be in style while in the hospital. I took in her "BabyLegs" leg warmers and her fuzzy pink socks. These are both perfect for a hospital. Her feet stay warm and the leg warmers keep her legs warm (obviously) but the doctors and nurses are also able to still access her lines!
Isn't she stylin'? Nurse Bethany put her her two ponytails in today, too. It's hard to tell in the picture, but they are super cute.
Me and Nicole
Did I ever mention, we are in isolation. This is the lovely garb we have to wear when in Olivia's room. I sure wish they came in a variety of colors. It would definitely add some excitement to the unit.
Woohoo!
One of the nurses last night asked if Olivia was on the upside of things. I, of course, said I wouldn't go that far. However, she may be considering it. She had a great day yesterday. They did increase her sedation and paralytic, turned off the calcium drip, and turned her oxygen down to 60%! She is poopin' like a mad woman so her tummy looks tons better. They did identify the secondary infection as Diplococci. It's a bacterial infection in her lungs most likely caused from being on the vent for so long. That just opens doors for infection.
Anyway, all is well. I'm anxious to get in there this morning and see how her night went.
