Mini Update from Carole

It's just after 5am here. I was at Nate's side till about 3am. Don had gone back to the hotel just after 9 to get a few hours of rest. Then he came to take the rest of the night shift and I got a couple of hours of rest in one of the family areas.

Nate has done well. Dr. Rebeyka said they had to tighten the band more than he had planned on, to 60% instead of 50% of the other side. They also took a good look at things as the team feels that the 'double switch' surgery will be a matter of when, and not if.

They extubated Nate about 2 hours after surgery, 1:45pm. That was good! He was basically over riding the breathing machine at that point anyway. His oxygen levels were too low after that, so they put him on a small amount of oxygen through the nose.

Nate was not a happy camper each time he'd wake up. But with a lot of talking and telling him stories I could usually calm him down. His first words when he'd wake up each time would be something to the effect of "all done" and asking for juice. At about 6 he got his first bit of ice chips. As the night wore on we tried giving small amounts of juice and then progressed to milk, but his tummy has been very upset and he's been throwing everything up. But he is so upset when we don't give him his liquids!

They are hoping that today sometime to remove his chest tube. That's the real 'oucher' of the lines that he has in right now. Also hoping that he will move out to the cardiac ward today, so we'll see what happens!

I'm really anxious to get back in to his room to see how he's been the last two hours, so I'll leave the update at this for now. Each of your prayers has touched Nate and we are so grateful for each one of you. Please pray that today does not hold any setbacks for Nate. Thank you so incredibly much. I know there's much more that I want to write, but I'll get to that when things settle down here a bit. Nate needs us round the clock right now!