Day Six- No More Funny Stuff

Amelia continues to do pretty well. She is pink and her vital signs continue to strengthen, which are all positive signs, but we are now entering a phase where her physicians will more aggressively push to wean Amelia off the balance of her pain medication.

We are somewhat concerned about tremors in her hands. These fits seem to cease when we touch her (thereby ruling out seizures). We think they started about a day after Amelia’s team reduced her Morphine doses, and so we suspect that she might be going through some sort of withdrawal. We will wait for the conclave to come to that conclusion tomorrow.

One thing is for sure, reviewing Amelia’s prescription records as of late is like snooping through Elvis’ medicine cabinet circa 1976.

Amelia is much more alert as each day passes, but she seems to find it difficult to settle down to sleep. Her beloved pacifier has been returned to her, which helps, but she is awake far too much for an infant who is recovering from major surgery. Is she in pain? Is she suffering from withdrawal? Is it something else? Who knows. Melissa and I have uncovered a few settling tricks – she likes to be sung to, she likes to have her head stroked and her bum patted – but she really likes to be picked up and cuddled.

But really, who doesn’t like any of these things?

She still has a few too many lines attached to be cuddled, but hopefully we can hold her tomorrow.

Amelia had many visitors today. Granma and Grampa Woodward came by to see her and so did Uncle Mike and Carmela (pictured above with brother Jack). Like the rest of the hospital on the weekend, the second floor was relatively quiet, since only emergency surgeries are done. The best part of visiting on the weekends is the parking; the worst part is it’s hard to find medical personnel other than nurses, who know everything anyway, to talk to.

This evening, the nurse has just informed us that Amelia will be moved back to the fourth floor, the Cardiac Unit, tomorrow after rounds. Let’s keep our fingers crossed.