Two Steps Forward. . . Three Steps Back...Post Surgery Day 6 & 7

The "New" IV on his hand-Moved from his Foot

Holding Daddy's Hand...and Look My "Bow" is gone!

Well just like this post is titled. . . .we took two steps forward and three steps back last night and today. The healing or "fine tuning" (I like to call it) is a long and hard process.

Wednesday, June 8, 2011 (Post Surgery-Day 6)
On Wednesday he got his chest draining tubes taken out, but one of the two was clogged. So when they took it out there was some fluid that came gushing out. They let it gush for a minute then patched it up, saying that the body will absorb the rest-no big deal. But throughout the day on Wednesday the flanks of his body were getting wider-filling with this fluid. So today-Thursday-they put in another chest tube to drain the fluid. As they did so they got about 50cc worth of fluid-which is a lot!

Here is how the past two days break down:

Wednesday:
Removed head sensor and kidney senor, removed the chest tubes, removed one IV-that was for the pain medication and sedation drip-from his foot and put it in to his left wrist. It had been there for so long that it was not working-his poor little leg was swollen due to the medication not reaching the rest of his body.

Wednesday goals were: push for him to get rid of the fluid around his flanks and wean him more of his ventilator. (these were not met due to the following)

Wednesday Night @ 11:00
We get a call from the hospital saying that his blood pressure had dropped and they were going to give him blood pressure medication and blood platelets to bring it back up. They were also going to do another ECOgram to see what the deal was. Later that night be came off of both medicines and blood pressure resumed normalcy. They also took cultures of his blood to see what was going on.

Thursday, June 9, 2011 (Post Surgery-Day 7)
Doctors decided to put back in the Art Line to draw his blood from and to watch his blood pressure. They also decided to send it to the lab to check for infection. The preliminary report after 12 hours came back negative, but they will wait 48 hours to confirm. They also put back in one of the chest tubes-to drain the fluid mentioned above (also found out that during surgery they nicked a lymphatic vessel, which is leaking Chyle a milky white fluid that was found in the fluid in his chest-which makes it difficult to breath-it is called Chylothorax. They treat it by draining it and placing him on a MCT diet-no breast milk for a few weeks due to its fat content. He will need to be on a special formula for a while.

His acidic levels were high-so they stopped feeding him my milk and went back on the electros and are watching the levels of acid in his bowels and stool. And later on his heart had a irregular rhythm to it-so they shocked him with the heart defibrillator and his heart was able to get back on pace-but this they are watching very closely and are giving him medication for it as well. He is on more oxygen and we are hoping that by draining the fluid that that will help get him back on track.

It has been a tough last couple of days. Jesse has been so positive and able to see the good! He said that it has been a great day of knowledge-how that the doctors and nurses have found out what is the matter and are treating it. I am so grateful for his insights, because I have not felt this way. I believe my faith and patience are wavering and I feel as if I can't wish for the positive, since lately we have seen too much of the negative. It is hard to stay positive when you are dealing with such critical moments in your little boys life. I have prayed for strength and understanding all day....I hope that Heavenly Father is patient with me....it is a hard lesson to learn and believe day in and day out-Trial of Faith...