Getting Stronger Daily

Thursday was a blur and we forgot to write anything down on this blog. (This is Josh writing) Ruby was continuing to breathe better and better and so they started to scale back the O2 setting and pressure on the ventilator. By noon she was breathing 20% oxygen, which is the same oxygen levels that you and I breathe at normal room levels. They had began scaling back some of her pain meds, but it was slow and they were monitoring her closely. All in all, they just wanted her to rest after her surgery from Wednesday. I took my daughter, Jane up in the late afternoon to see her and the nurse opened one of the x-rays that they had just done, comparing them with the ones from earlier. The left lung looked larger in the newer x-ray than the one from this morning. This did not really register with me until I made the trip back up with my son, Joey. It meant that there was more lung tissue than they had originally thought. In just 12 hours, her left lung had expanded as it was allowed to work and it was STRONG. The second time up I bumped into the surgeon, Dr. Chan, and he was overjoyed at her progress. He commented about her O2 levels and the reduction in her meds, saying that it was a great sign and she was doing amazingly well.

We know that Ruby is a fighter and that she came into this world kicking. For that reason Whitney and I chose Karyn as Ruby's middle name to honor Whitney's mother and to show the world how strong this little girl is. If you know Karyn you understand what I am talking about. It was a fitting name for little Rubalicious.

Ruby Karyn Holley