Sorry faithful blog readers (all 5 of you LOL!) I know this post is late - I know at least one of you was worried (sorry Jen-haha) but mommy was beyond beat last night and feel asleep not once, but twice on the couch last night and thus had an early bedtime. I guess sleeping on those fold-out chairs at the hospital a couple of times this week will do that to a girl!  Anyway, on to the good stuff!

Finley had a great night overnight Thursday in to Friday and the plan was to take her to the OR to be extubated around 12:55 pm.  So I waited for the docs to make their rounds Friday morning and as soon as they came by I stepped out to go pump.  When I got back (it was about 9:30 am), there were several doctors clothed in surgical gear in Finley's room and so I actually stopped in the hall, checked the room number (thinking I had come to the wrong room - nope - 206 - that's us) and as it turned out they had an opening in the OR so they came to take her WAY early!!  WHOO HOO - I was lucky I didn't miss her and SO happy they took her early.

The process didn't last long and they called from the OR to request a CPAP before she came back.  That is a mask that goes over the nose and mouth and provides a more forceful flow of oxygen than a regular nasal cannula would.  They requested this because of Finley's airway challenges and they thought she would need a little something extra to sustain her. When Dr. Hollinger came to talk to me after the extubation about the bronchoscopy - he said he airway was still inflamed and while it was bigger than normal from having the tube down it - the concern was that it would swell causing the need to be re-intubated and so he said very frankly that yesterday would be "touch and go" as far as needing to have the breathing tube put back in.

So, they brought Finley back from the OR, got her set up on the CPAP mask and I had an opportunity to see her beautiful little face before they got her all hooked back up and she looked really, really good.  At that point I warned the nurse practitioner that she wasn't going to take kindly to having that contraption strapped to her face and I gently suggested that they might want to consider keeping her on the sedation meds (having gone through this once before I KNEW she would try to take the mask off as soon as she had a little fight back in her) but they decided to keep her off them. No more than 30 mins later when the anesthesia from the OR wore off - guess who wanted that mask off?  Needless to say, they came back in to resume the sedation meds (and I sat there thinking - told you so!).  Needless to say, I was actually expecting Finley to come back from the OR, working really hard to breathe - pulling in at her sides and just over all having a hard time - similar to what we saw 10 days ago when she had the infected airway and when we first found out about her subglottic stenosis.  And to be honest - I am pretty sure all of the docs expected that too.  But she was calm, not working hard at all and really doing a fabulous job!  And her first blood gas - which is more or less a gauge of how effectively she is breathing - came back excellent and all of the doctors were so impressed!

And so it actually ended up being a pretty big day for our girlfriend - when she came back from the OR they also pulled one of her three chest tubes out and were only really leaving the other two because Dr. Backer had concern that the bronchoscopy could cause a pneumothorax - hopefully those will be removed today.  She also got her Foley catheter out - I have never been so excited at the thought of changing a diaper in my life!

Finley continued to do well all day, her 4 pm blood gas was again excellent but when I called overnight (three times - LOL) the nurse said that Finley had woken up a couple of times, sad and frustrated with the mask and they had to give her a little more sedation to get her to calm down.  This of course makes mommy sad to know that Finley has that stupid mask making her uncomfortable after all that she has been through.  But when I spoke to the nurse this morning, she said that Finley got a bath overnight and when she took the CPAP mask off her for a bit for the bath - she was instantaneously soothed by being able to put her fingers in her mouth (this is bringing tears to my eyes as I type because I know how much she loves those fingers and her paci) and so the nurse called in the respiratory therapist to see how good Finley was doing off the CPAP and so she said during rounds this morning she is going to recommend that they try Finley on the regular nasal cannula for oxygen.  KEEP YOUR FINGERS CROSSED. Of course if this happens, daddy will again be the one who benefits (he got to be there last time she came off the mask and got to hold her first) because he is planning on spending the day at the hospital today and giving mommy some time with her little man!  And now that I think of it my mom and sister will benefit too because they are going up for a visit today!  Seems my timing is a little off, eh?

As promised though - here is my cute a button princess with her piggies in on Thursday.  Note the yellow-ish colored stuffed animal in the foreground - that is a Pluto stuffed animal that Nate picked out for her the other day when Nate had his special day with grammy.  He is so thoughtful like that.  And ask it turned out, Pluto ended up being a nice prop for her breathing tube!  Now that its out - he's back to serving his original purpose - cuddling!

You know, one of her surgeons said something yesterday during rounds that really perked my ears up - we love our doctors so much and coming from one of them it really did mean a lot for me to hear it.  He said "I think Finley has turned the corner" - and you know - we really feel hopeful that he is right!

And so yesterday was a good day overall.  After Finley had been resting comfortably for a while, I headed home in an effort to beat rush hour traffic AND the American Idol pandemonium in downtown Mt. Prospect which happens to be on my way home.  Unfortunately I encountered both and it took me about an hour and a half to get home but I had a nice afternoon home with Mike and Nate. I chased Nate around in the backyard in nothing but his Buzz Lightyear underwear and his yellow crocs (yes - you read that correctly) and we just spent the afternoon chillin'.  And as I mentioned before, I was simply beat so it ended up being an early night.

And here you have Nate introducing Rosey to "her new friend" the dog (that is a solar light for my patio).  When I came home yesterday, the light was in the living room, surrounded by Nate's toys because he'd been playing with it!  Then he proceeded to pick it up by the tail (the only way he carries it) and to chase Rosey around some more trying to make the introduction.  Bless Rosey because she is SO good about all of this!