Leah is SO RASPY tonight. It’s horrible. The respiratory therapists are having a hard time with her because most of the interventions they would usually recommend are not allowed in Leah’s case because of the healing surgical site. Everything from extending her neck or patting her on the back to administering certain treatments and medications – these things would all disturb an esophagus that is newly sutured to a stomach. So she sounds and looks horrible. They keep telling us that she is better than she looks since her numbers are all pretty good, but while we can digest that rationally, it is still hard to see her this way. It doesn’t help that the low-grade fever she had last night and part of today has increased to over 100 degrees this evening. She tends to run low like her Mama (not quite as low, but still) so I hear 100 degrees and alarms go off. They are going to give her some IV Tylenol. And morphine. And Ativan. I would very much like for this part to zip by so we can get to the part where we get to scoop her up and see her smile.