This morning he had a chest x-ray that showed his left lung has improved slightly but is still almost completely covered in white (meaning his lung is full of fluid and atelectasis especially in his lower lobe). This was always his bad lung, so I am not surprised that it is acting up now. His right lung looks really good though.
He was very fluid negative this morning. He was actually a liter of fluid negative! He looked very dehydrated so they shut off the continuous IV Lasix drip and started him on diurel 2x a day and Lasix 3x a day to keep pulling fluid off a little less intensely. They also dropped his fluid restriction - YAY! - so he is able to drink as much as he wants. :) His stomach is still sensitive so he is only doing soft foods like applesauce, pudding, and jello and only tolerating small amounts before not feeling great. But overall he is doing really well with his intake.
We pulled the Foley catheter this afternoon so that is much more comfortable for him now obviously. Unfortunately we were not able to remove his chest tube since it was still draining too much. The docs are definitely expecting it to be out tomorrow though, so that will be a huge help with Ethan's pain! We also were able to remove his arterial line and an IV in his wrist that was hurting him. He is much happier with his hands free of IVs now.
Ethan sat in a chair next to his bed this morning. He begged to get up, so after over 45 minutes of prep (it takes a lot of work to get him all unhooked from everything and all his wires and tubing able to be moved around with him), he got in the chair and immediately wanted back in bed. He gets super dizzy still and it wears him out instantly. We made him stay in the chair for 20 minutes though and he toughed it out for us. He then got back into bed and took a nice nap. :)
 |
| This smile lasted about 3 seconds until... |
 |
| definitely tired him out! |
Late afternoon he wanted to get out of his room. We got all ready to go with a wheelchair, but by the time we were finished prepping everything Ethan was exhausted and ready to sleep again. Mind you he just lays in bed watching everyone get everything ready to go and telling us to hurry LOL. After a short nap though he was ready to get out again. He walked from his bed to the wheelchair (about 4 feet away). Then we rode down the hall to the fish tank. We promised him over a year ago that he could get a fish tank after his surgery, and unfortunately he remembered and is reminding us of the plan. He really enjoyed being out. When we returned to his room he walked back to his bed and immediately went back to sleep.
After our walk Ethan's heart rate shot up to 216. After a couple minutes though he slowly dropped back down to around 120. Hopefully that was a one-time thing and now that he is finally back on his Digoxin and Nadolol his rhythm will continue to improve. After that incident he has been doing very well with his rhythm on his monitors with much fewer alarms for PVCs.
We are also trying to get rid of his IV meds. Today we stopped all IV painkillers and he is only on Tylenol as needed. He has only needed it once today thankfully. He is so tough! We also stopped the Milrinone today. The only thing left is fluids (we are stopping that as well since he is drinking so well) and Heparin. We hope to stop the Heparin once his chest tube is able to be removed so that will leave him free of the IV pole!
Today Ethan has been extremely lethargic and pale. He is just finishing up a blood transfusion and that will hopefully help improve his appearance and energy. This once again pushes the importance of donating blood! Ethan needed platelets yesterday and a blood transfusion today, not including anything used during surgery. I can't even count how many blood products he has needed over his life, so if you can please continue to donate blood! The docs say there could be multiple factors causing him to be so tired - the healing process his body is having to go through, the restless sleep he has had for the past four days, and/or something they call ICU psychosis (not sufficient sleep because the lights never go off, noises are happening all day and night, beeping from monitors are going off constantly, and people are checking in and messing with him all the time). He also is having a rough day emotionally. He is very homesick and has been in tears multiple times today because he misses his puppies. :( I feel so bad for him. Unfortunately the hospital visitor dogs don't come on the weekend, but we are definitely going to request they come see him as soon as possible. Hopefully that will cheer him up a little.
Another thing we discovered today is that he has a sore on his butt. We don't know for sure yet if this is a pressure wound or another betadine burn like he received a couple caths ago. Unfortunately wound care is not here on weekends so we will have it checked out by them on Monday. The doc who looked at it today said it isn't too bad, so hopefully the patch they put on it will help it heal up quickly.
 |
| Daddy tucking him in |
Please pray that his stomach pain decreases. He is just about to get morphine because it is hurting him a lot. I think a lot of it is gas pain, but it is hard to tell exactly at this point because of all the tubes and wires he has going in him that cause pain too. Please also pray for his emotional well-being. He is really frustrated and sad about being away from home and being confined to his little room all day. I pray that tomorrow we are able to move to the step down unit where he will be able to walk/ride down to the playroom. He has been asking to go down there today but unfortunately he is not allowed to leave here yet. Another prayer is just for his overall comfort. His legs are very much done with being in bed and they are really aching and driving him nuts. He just can't seem to get comfortable. :( Also please pray for a solid night's sleep for the both of us!
No comments:
Post a Comment