Intermediate Care - And Tomorrow

They just moved us out of PICU and into Intermediate Care. We have a private room (don't seem to be many of those) and they brought in a recliner, in addition to the bench/couch, so Shrike has checked out of the hotel and we're both in the room and fairly comfy.

She's on the couch and I'm in the recliner, so I can nurse Peeper sitting up, then sleep reclined. I wouldn't buy one for the house, but it's comfy enough.

We're hoping that she'll be discharged tomorrow, but you know how that works, we won't really know when until the orders are signed.

She'll have another echocardiogram in the morning, and if everything is hunky-dory, we could get out tomorrow afternoon.

If her cardiac function isn't quite what they want yet, then we might stick around a bit longer.

That's nothing to be concerned about, just that the right ventricle has to get used to suddenly having the right amount of fluid, rather than too much (it's a bit "flabby" after the hole is closed, and has to "tighten up") and the left ventricle has to get used to only needing to pump the normal force to get enough blood out the aorta, rather than pumping harder to make up for what was shunting to the right ventricle.

Basically, the heart just has to relearn how to be normal. Hopefully it has by morning, but if it's not quite there yet they'll want to keep an eye on her a bit more.

She's off the med that they had her on to help with that, so that's good, just need to see where the function is.

It's not a concern as to whether she'll get it together, just a question how long it takes.

So, if all goes as planned, we hope to be out tomorrow afternoon or evening, but no promises.