Day 1 Post Surgery

Ashlyn had a restful night last night. This morning she had a chest x-ray, and it looked great! She continues to be very sleepy this morning (still on some sedation meds) but wakes up coughing, which can be painful. We want her to cough though to get rid of the "junk." She has been drinking apple juice from her cup and lets us know when she wants more. The line into her heart will remain for one more day. Normally it would come out, but as Eric mentioned in the last update, she was very agitated coming out of the anesthesia, and we had a mess when her arterial line came out last night. So just in case she would do the same with her IV, we want to have some access to get meds in. She was switched to oral pain medication, and we will introduce food later when she is more awake after the sedation meds are stopped. The first 72 hours post-op are the most painful and uncomfortable, but it should get better a little bit each day. It is very exciting to see her pulse ox up in the low 90's where they've never been before in her life. Her surgery was called a fenestrated Fontan. A fenestration, or hole, is left in as a "pop off valve" to help reduce the amount of fluid build up in the chest. It will close on its own within the next six months. Once this closes her pulse ox should go up to 99-100%.