Surpassing expectations at every corner

If there was a way to crush and dominate recovering from a surgery such as the one she had, well Charlotte is doing it. Less then 48hrs after her 10 hour surgery, she has been moved from the ICU to a normal hospital room to finish her recovery. She did not need the support they assumed she would need and so she is trucking along beautifully. She still has her epidural for some pain management but she hasn't needed any oxygen or blood pressure support. The PICU nurses expected her to be intibated with a breathing tube after that type of surgery for the length that it was but when they received her postop, it had already been removed by the surgical team as they could tell based on various factors that she didn't need it for recovery! She is crushing it!!

Next step, is to hope that her bowels begin to wake up so that we can remove the NG (nasogastro) tube assisting in reducing accumulation of stomach bile. Once she shows signs of that, then she can start to try to take in some clear liquids by mouth and we can move on from there. So next up is getting her ready to eat. She asked to eat tonight which is a good sign. We let her munch on a couple ice chips and that made her happy. She was more awake and alert today while daddy cared for her. And she is now sleeping comfortably and peacefully. We will see how the next few days go and then we can figure out when to get her home to finish recovering. For now, she continues to amaze us all.