Ford seems to be doing ok in the PICU today, about 24 hours post-op. They've discontinued one of his sedatives (Midazolam) and he woke up for a while this morning. He's still on morhphine though, so he was pretty dopey (although I guess most 10 day old kids are kinda dopey). He stayed stable all night (we were expecting a call at 2am requesting our consent for some dramatic intervention they would need to perform, but there was none) and is continuing to keep his numbers where they want them . They are a bit concerned about his kidneys, which aren't working as well as they hoped. But this is apparenty not uncommon after surgery and they are entertaining several options (including putting a draining tube directly into his abdomen). Yesterday they were really concerned that his blood pressure and heart rate were too low, so they were pumping him full of saline, blood, and blood related products to bring it up. But this morning he got pretty upset while he was awake and they didn't like how high his numbers were getting, so they have put him on ativan (sp?) to bring them all back down. So it's all up and down still. One nurse called it the 'neonatal two-step' (two steps forward, one step back).
He has a lovely sign above his bed - Caution: Chest cavity open (skin closed). The surgeons have kept his ribs open (braced with some piece of plastic or metal) to keep the pressure off the potential swelling of the heart. If he continues to do as well as he's doing they will come back to finish closing him up either tomorrow or the next day.
We are finding the vibe in the PICU alot different than the NICU. For one, there is alot more 'action,' as things seem to be generally more critical, but mostly it is the personalities of the intensivists and nurses, who are way more silly and crack alot of jokes that might seem to be in bad-taste (which has me - nick - in fits of laughter). Dr. Dominic Cave is our favourite (not just because of his name and british accent), he is amazing at explaining everything that's going on in a really straightforward fashion and is full of generosity, wit, and sarcasm.
The next few days could still get pretty bad, but at the moment we are feeling pretty good.
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Oh heavenly days, we are so glad for the update and for little Mr. Ford, what a strong brave family you are. We send love and continued healing! So glad there are bad jokes at the PICU :)
ReplyDeleteDid you know that according to Steiner the etheric body of the mother always stretches as far as the baby? So even when you are in another building , or on the other side of town, little Ford can feel your presence.
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