Getting Aggressive

Today was a day of little change. It was similar to yesterday in her activity, pain, chest tube output, and xray. Nothing is worse, but persistent. Our surgeon rounded this evening and we had a little consult with him explaining what the next approach would be. We worked really hard at being no/low fat the past few day. When I say low fat, I mean 1 gram of fat for the day. He told us this am to go no fat. I called the dietician. I didn't know the fat content of a few things and the menu has very few no fat options. The dietitian believed it nearly impossible. Cream of wheat has 0.25 fat grams per serving...and she only eats about 1/3 of it. The fruit cup has 0.28 fat. The fat free ranch dressing for her carrot sticks has 0.48 fat grams in the whole packet. Her drainage was on track to still be 200ml in 24 hours. Dr. Fortuna (our most awesome surgeon) said we need to keep her NPO=nothing by mouth for a day or more to get the fluids accumulation in her lung to stop. I think he planned on doing it tomorrow, but as we were talking we all decided to start her at that moment. She had a sucker in her hand and I asked who was going to take that from her... :( super sad face! He agreed, out of sheer sympathy to allow her to have suckers and ice chips. But even that will have its affect on her fluid production. Lymph drainage is a crazy, complex thing. So tonight began the begging for a drink and to eat. She asked for a drink and tomatoes! Tomatoes! We have spent days encouraging her to eat and now all we say is not now! This is going to be incredibly tough. I'm too exhausted to even think past tomorrow right now...if it works then "this" and if it doesn't, then "this." We are going to be in here a while. But Bill kept repeating, "we are going to get through this." And we will! This is a problem that is complicated to fix, but it is not life-threatening. For that we are so thankful. Bill knows all kinds of kids that have poor outcomes and he was just going over in his head all those bad scenarios and how that is not Mahaela's situation. We thank God! She is a strong little girl with a fighter, feisty personality. She will get through this. Thank you all for your prayers, encouragement, and scripture. We need it. I have ICU brain. There is much time, but my brain can't do much else than think about how she is doing. I feel completely distracted, scatter brained, unable to make decisions, just completely indecisive. I guess it's the effect of my focus being mostly on Mahaela or pulled to what I should/would/could be doing for my other kids. They are having to fight through all of this also and it's not easy for them. The night slips away quickly, so I am going to sleep...