Down to one...

Jules is down to one chest tube. The pleurodesis on the left side seems to have been successful. They removed her left chest tube on Christmas day. Today, they did a pleurodesis on the right side. In a few days, we will know if it was a success. If so, her final chest tube should be able to be removed.

That's the good news. The possibly-not-so-good news is she has started getting more edematous again. She gained about a pound in the last two nights. Since this is what she typically does when she has an infection, they started antibiotics yesterday. Her blood cultures have not grown anything yet.

She remains on the ventilator. An attempt to extubate her on Friday night was unsuccessful. Now that she is getting edematous again, her lungs have more resistance and require more support. We just need to get her back to her normal size and keep her that way.

After stopping in to bring Juliet her stocking on Christmas morning, we went to Pennsylvania for the weekend. It was nice to get out of town for a few days and to spend some time with our family. I didn't love the idea of leaving Juliet, but we were only 3 hours away and her medical team did a great job keeping her company. We knew she was in good hands. It was good for all of us, I think.

Hopefully, you all had a relaxing holiday weekend. Keep Juliet in your thoughts and prayers. This peanut needs to start making some major steps in the right direction very soon.