UPDATE:

Maddie is now totally off the feeding tube, which means she now is not hooked up to anything. The removal of the feeding tube was not exactly planned - she yanked it out around 1130 last night while throwing a fit (we were told to expect some withdrawal to the narcotics used to sedate her earlier - we're treating that, but it's a slow process to wean her off of everything). She got mad and yanked it out shortly after they hooked up a bag of formula, which then got all over her and the bed.

Nurse came in and got everything cleaned up. They tried to put it back in (through the nose) but she was pissed off and fought them. Nurse called the doctor, who said if she could start drinking enough Pediasure through a straw to get the proper amount of nutrition, we wouldn't have to put the feeding tube back in. So after getting her cleaned up, she begrudgingly drank a bottle of Pediasure. She doesn't particularly like it, but likes it better than someone ramming a tube up her nose and down the back of her throat.

This morning, the speech therapist came in to see how she handles eating "semi-solid" foods. So far today, she's eaten a cup of jello, a bag of gummy snacks and a sausage patty, as well as drinking a bottle of Pediasure. She's also eaten a few bites here and there of pureed chicken/mashed taters/mac'n'cheese. She is perfectly capable of eating those things, she just doesn't like them and puts up a fight. So, at this point we're just trying to get her to eat/drink enough by mouth to convince the doctors she'll do so, otherwise the feeding tube would have to go back in temporarily.

She's still on Ativan and methadone to help with the withdrawal symptoms, but they've nearly got her weaned off the methadone, which had to be done before she can leave - she should be done with it sometime over the weekend.

So...........if that goes as planned, and if she will begin eating/drinking a little more by mouth, we could potentially be going home early/mid-next week and hopefully with no feeding tube.

Fingers crossed, continued prayers appreciated.