May 2nd, Morning Update #
Ruby has another fever this morning, we aren't sure why since her cultures came back negative. Please be praying.
May 2nd, Afternoon Update #
Hi all, thank you for your prayers!
Ruby is doing better now.
She was very upset and had a fever of 39.4 this morning and afternoon.
I discussed her medications with her doctor and we decided to switch her to hydromorphone from the morphine to see if she would do better with that. She had responded better to it in the past, and it can be given orally. So they figured out the correct dosage to be equivalent to the amount of fentanyl she had been on before.
After they made the switch she was much calmer, and her temp has come down significantly. It's possible that the fever was due to withdrawal, but we'll have to wait to know for sure.
Her heart rate has been higher with how upset she's been but not going above 120, and now it is 105 since she's calm and sleeping. They haven't been able to wean her off of one of the IV beta blockers, esmolol, but hopefully soon.
This stage is really just lots of tweaking to find a good spot so they can start weaning her off of all of these meds, very slowly. She is down to 4 IV pumps from the 18+ pumps that she was on initially, so there is progress... Just very slow progress. Apparently this is one of the hardest stages of being in intensive care, because every kid responds differently.
Thomas is on his way home now to be with Elizabeth. We figured it was time, and we'll switch when it makes sense to.
We are praying for steady progress and healing, and for peace and strength in the midst of all of these trials.
TLDR: Ruby is doing a bit better, switched meds & fever is gone. Tom is going back home to be with Lizzie.
