Did You Say Viagra?!?

You read that right, little Eden is on Viagra.

Eden has Pulmonary Hypertension, which basically means that her blood vessels leading to the lungs are constricted, thus causing pressure to build up in the lungs.  This could be due to her heart not working properly when she was born and also her non-heart related lung problems. This also makes them more difficult to ventilate.  Although reducing pulmonary hypertension is not it's claim to fame, Viagra does just that and they are weening Eden off of her Nitric Oxide onto Viagra.  It is given orally and she can come home on this.  If you are interested, here is a wonderful article explaining it in more detail:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/04/040413001103.htm

Eden continues to do relatively well considering how sick she still is.  She has only had one little episode where she "misbehaved."  They are trying to ween her off of her epinephrine medicine which is helping to keep her blood pressure steady.  They thought they had her weened completely yesterday, but she thought different.  She was not able to hold her pressures steady on her own and they started to drop.  They put her back on a small does of the epi and she responded well.  She is once again off of it today, but this time she seems to be keeping her pressures up okay on her own.  They are also trying to back down on keeping her so heavily sedated.  She is on so much sedation and all of your vital signs are lower when sedated.  Weening her completely from her pain medications will be a big task though since she is very addicted at this point.

Although slow, I could not be more happy with Eden's progress at this point.  As her nurse yesterday put it, "we are on Eden's schedule.  If we do something she doesn't like, she lets us know.  She is getting better, just slowly.  Eden likes to stop and smell the flowers, play with the butterflies and pick the roses along the way."  Dr. Pearl is going to do another x-ray in the morning and decide then if he wants to close her sternum tomorrow or wait.  It will depend on how much fluid she still has and whether or not he thinks there will be too much pressure yet to close it.  I will find out in the morning.

We love and appreciate each of you for your kindness and support.  The outpouring of support we have received from friends and strangers has been very humbling.  A casual acquaintance, to say the least, from the gym gave me a small gift for Eden today with two pair of hand knit booties she made for her feet.  She said she just wanted to do something to show her concern and support.  How thankful I am for people's example to me of the Lord's love and care for His children.