Day 3 - Recovery AM update

Thank you Aunt Carol for this beautiful quote:

"Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass, but learning to dance in the rain"

Hello friends! We were initially in mixed spirits this morning because we decided to stay at the house instead of with Hadley last night. However, we did stay in her room until about 2AM this morning before deciding this. So our bodies were up almost 24 hours with our little . It was nice to get some rest after such a long day.
When we got in this morning we didn't see much difference in Hadley. She's swollen from absorbing fluids into her tissues, hooked up to what seems like an endless array of machines, and there is a little patch above her heart that has allowed for swelling and for her heart to beat as it should. The good news is that she is now off of the pacing machine (the thing that kept her heart beating continuously and paced it). She has gone from needing 100% oxygen to only needing a mixture of 40% oxygen - this is a good thing! And it seems to the nurse that her swelling has started to come down especially around the patch area. The doctor told us that she was looking good - though still has a long way to go to recovery - and they may be able to close her chest tomorrow sometime. She briefly opened her beautiful eyes for us this morning and has been slowly moving around. The goal for today is to start getting her off of the medication which is a SLOW process. They can only do a little at a time and have to wait for what seems like hours before making another adjustment. Words cannot express the support and love we feel from here. All of you have been amazing through this new adventure and we personally would like to thank each and every one of you.
There is still a long road ahead, but we feel that Hadley is a FIGHTER. A quick thank you to Kara, Hilary and John for visiting us last night. Thanks for the encouragement, laughs, and hugs (even the groceries and the car!). We are humbled to have such great support and look forward to updating you more as this healing time goes on.

Casey