Slowly moving in the right direction...

Well, alot has happened since yesterday afternoon. Maddie got her chest tube out and her iv line that was going directly into her right atrium. She had a really good afternoon and evening. They took her off of her iv pain meds and she seemed to be able to handle that. They also took her off one of her meds that was helping her to relax and she started to become more alert. Before when she looked at me, it was like she was looking right through me. She was finally starting to respond to our voices and look around. Once she was rested from everything they had been doing, I got to hold her. It was so wonderful, for me and her!!
While I was holding her, some of our Living Hope family, Pam and Aaron Hines, came by to visit. It is nice to have visitors because it helps pass the time. They brought Maddie this cute little pink hedgehog named smitten. It is holding a little heart, which is very appropriate. They also brought some crossword puzzles for me and Brent.
Brent went home this afternoon and picked up the kids and his mom and dad and came back up to the hospital so the girls could see Maddie. It is still very hard for the girls to see Maddie with the lines that she still has. Even though she only has 2 ivs, there are about 3 or 4 lines coming off 1 iv. It is very overwhelming to look at.
Maddie had a pretty good night. She slept most of it. I on the other hand was up every time the monitor beeped, which was quite a bit. She had an x-ray at 5 and then she ate at 6.
After looking at her x-ray the doctor felt like more fluid was accumulating around her left lung so they decided to put a chest tube in to drain it. Because of this, the plan was for us to stay in the icu for most of the day. They sedated Maddie and put her tube in and she did great. I could not believe all of the fluid that drained out, so I took a picture.
We had a few visitors today that helped the day pass. My mom and dad and Brent's mom and dad came by. And our sweet friend Allie Burghardt came for a visit and she also brought a bag of goodies! So sweet! Thanks, Allie! Our pastor, Jeremy Westbrook also came by for a visit and prayed for Maddie! We are so thankful for Jeremy and his family!
After lunch, the ICU doctor came in and said he thought it would be fine to move Maddie to the step down floor! YAY!!!! Our sweet nurse, Jill, came in and took Maddie's catheter out and got us ready for our move. We loaded up all our stuff and headed to C5. This is the cardiac floor that you move to after ICU. Our next move will hopefully be home! Maddie's cardiologist came by and was very pleased with her progress so far, but she felt like Maddie has about 5 more days here.

Prayer requests...
1. We need Maddie to eat!
2. That the fluid will be gone when they do the chest x-ray in the morning and that it will not return!
3. That she can come off the oxygen.
4. Maddie's cough...that she doesn't have a viral infection
5. No pain
6. My dad...he's not feeling well

Thanks so much for being so faithful to pray for us!

Maybe I'll post pictures later. For some reason, my computer is not recognizing my iphone...