February 9

I guess apologies are in order for scaring everyone with my bad dream. I really just thought it would be funny to share. Sorry for the scare. By the way, no one offered to interpret the dream :)

After my scary dream, however, I was kind of freaked out to get to the hospital Saturday afternoon and see Elsie with IVs in both of her hands. I didn't know what was going on, or why she suddenly had IVs in her hands that weren't there yesterday. Maybe she had a raging infection or some other horrible problem. Turns out that Elsie's red blood cells were a little low, so the IVs were in place to facilitate a blood transfusion. Red blood cells carry oxygen throughout the body, so the hope is that with the additional red blood cells given, Elsie will be able to maintain a steady oxygen level and be able to wean off the ventilator. Along with that, she is not responding to the steroids like they would have hoped, so her steroid dose is going to be slightly increased. 

While we were there, we were able to watch the nurse hook up the blood transfusion. We also were able to watch the respiratory therapists re-tape the breathing tube. The breathing tube periodically needs to be moved from one side of her mouth to the other, and when they do this, they remove the tape that holds the tube in place. I had always wondered how they get the tape off her face, since her skin is so delicate. I didn't think that they would just rip it off like duct tape. And they don't. They use an adhesive remover to gently remove the tape. Then the tube is carefully re-positioned, and taped back onto her face. Anyway, since we were there while this was taking place, we got to see her pretty face without her "tape mustache". 

Her poor little cheeks are still red where the tape was, despite the careful removal. And I apologize again for the grainy cell phone pictures. I never seem to have my camera with me when I need it.