Eventful Evening

Last night, we had an eventful evening but in the end it all worked out.  Reagan went to the cath lab around 7:30 and within minutes Dr. Perry had a new broviac line placed and we were back on our way to the CVICU. Once back in our room, she was able to have her central I.J. line removed from her neck and PICC line that was placed on Thurs.  Now she is just down to the broviac, art line and breathing tube which should come out today.  We are currently on 30 min. sprints or trial runs to see how she breaths on her own and then if -or should I say when- she passes those than we can extubate---Yaaaayyyyy!!!  I will be so happy when I can report that the breathing tube is gone.
After coming back from the cath lab last night, Dr. Zebrack, our new primary attending, had a talk with me about the whole issue of meningitis.  She presented the case for doing a lumbar puncture to rule it out definitively.  She said, I know the CT showed no signs of meningitis but the only definite way to rule it out is through a lumbar puncture.  She said, we do not have to do it if you don't want but I just hate that we are dosing her on such high doses of antibiotics and not knowing for sure if she truly has meningitis.  Plus, it's a long term course (4-6 wks) to commit to.  If it comes back that she doesn't have it, then we are done with those huge doses and we are simply treating our 14 day course for the pneumonia we know she has.  Yes, she keeps spiking fevers but alot of kids in our unit spike fevers all the time and we never get a true reason for it.  She also gave me her resume on how many she's done and is totally comfortable doing it herself and within an hour we could have the results.  After seeing it in a whole new light, we agreed to the procedure and it was done bedside late last night.  Within an hour, we got a free and clean report that she does NOT have meningitis!!  Praise God-- we are so relieved and thankful we did it now so she does not have to get all those unnecessary doses for nothing.  I went and gave Dr. Zebrack and huge hug afterwards and thanked her for convincing me to do it and setting my mind at rest now.  She said she felt so much better about the whole thing now too.  Then we all ate chocolate to celebrate the big news-- LOL!
Now, for today we need prayers that Reagan will wake up enough from her sleepy sedated state and pass these sprints on the vent in order to get extubated!  I want to lay my head down tonight knowing she is breathing on her own without that tube down her throat as it was 2:30 this morning before I went to sleep with the eventful evening we had last night.
Lastly, I'd like to thank Roni McFadden.  She is the author of a children's book called Josephine, A Tale of Hope and Happy Endings.  It's the true story of a little filly horse who lost its mother and got a surrogate mother.  Josephine, the filly, is a granddaughter of Seabiscuit. Roni, the author, worked for the vet for the horses and was so touched by the story she turned it into a children's book.  The book is not even released yet.  This weekend, Roni is having her first book signing.  My mom and Lonny met her out here.  Her and her daughters were staying in the RV parked next to my mom and Lonny's because her husband was here at Stanford having brain surgery.  Roni gave Reagan an autographed copy of the book and has sent more copies to the Ronald McDonald House here in honor of Reagan. Thank you for doing this.  I pray each child, parent or grandparent that picks up these copies at the RMH will be touched by this sweet story.