not today

well surgery was planned for today, but we got bumped by a baby in very critical condition. so the plan is now for tomorrow - first thing in the morning, again barring any emergencies.

ford is having another tough day today. he is still stable, but struggling with a few things. the NICU is not the kind of place where you long to be the centre of attention. this morning, as his heart rate, blood pressure, and co2 levels all climbed above the numbers they were comfortable with, and his oxygen saturations levels dropped from 80% to 40%, we had 6 people standing around him, as opposed to the usual one dedicated nurse. at first they were all making adjustments. then they, and we, just stared at the monitor and waited for the numbers to change.

the co2 and blood pressure came down, and the crowd dispersed. today's nurse, tim, is working on bringing the rest down - an increase in medazolam first, to no effect. and now, an increase in the morphine, in hopes of calming ford's racing heart. his high-ish temperature is a result of the prostin. a chest x-ray showed a bit of collapse at the top of his right lung, which they think is clogged with mucus. lung physio is on its way to break that up so they can suction it out....

ugh...

(back to check and now back to update)

he's lost his pink colour and is now a sallow purple, but that is apparently quite normal for kids with his condition. they are pumping him full of saline because he has failed to respond to the sedatives. apparently they may have dried him out too much in preparation for his now postponed surgery, and so his heart is having to pump twice as hard to push the blood around. the fluid seems to be slowly having the effect they want, but he is still cruising the low 200s with his bpm. several doctors swung around again and gave him the once over - they didn't seem very concerned, so we are trying to calm ourselves down. too bad they weren't more keen on sharing the morphine IVs.

and so we wait for tomorrow.