Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Where's our smiley boy?
Finally Home
Well, I know he doesn't look very happy about it. But, they finally let us leave the ICU and go home today. We are so glad to be home, sure we're a little nervous not having him monitored by any number of devices 24/7, but he can get better rest and recover more quickly this way. He still has a lot of doctor visits planned, and plenty of medication for mom and dad to keep up on, but it is so nice to be home.
Monday, April 21, 2008
Much Better
Thomas is doing very well. He is still in ICU and probably will be till we go home. But, they are actually talking about days for that now. Hopefully by Wednesday. He is off all the IVs, off the oxygen since about 6 a.m., just a few monitors. He is just trying to stabilize himself now without much support. He is starting to look like our little boy again, we love him so much and can't wait to get him home.
Saturday, April 19, 2008
What A Night...
Okay, well I wrote yesterday, everything was going well, Thomas was off the life support and doing well. Well, he got a little too comfortable.
During the night Julie woke me up in a panic. Thomas heart rate had dropped, it was no longer beating on its own, the box was doing it for him. He was unresponsive, to people yelling at him, smacking his feet, even shoving a tube down his throat to suction him had no effect. Up to this point he had been pretty easy to startle. His eyes sockets were sunk in his eyes rolled to the back of his head, and his little soft spot was all sunken in. So, yeah we were scared.
They yanked all his pain medicine again this time, all the drips, and were preparing for a blood transfusion. We sat their for what seemed like hours waiting for the sedation, and other drugs to wear off, for the pain to shock his little beat up body back to life again. Slowly, his heart started to take its own beats again, first one and then a couple together, and after a while it was beating again on its own. We stayed up the rest of the night and into early morning watching our little boy and staring at the monitors just willing them to confirm our boy was alright.
Things are good now, I won't say that today was uneventful, it wasn't. But, they were good events. He got re-hydrated, they finally let him eat, even if it is through a tube in his nose (which he hates by the way - his arms are tied to the bed so he doesn't pull it out. He is off the heart box, he still has the electrical wires inside him wired to his heart just in case. They pulled out most of his IVs including the ones in his neck and groin, his chest tube, the catheter, and the dressing on his wound. He really is starting to look more like our little boy again. They moved him to a smaller bed, let him try to nurse (he threw up everywhere.) And decided he is going through narcotic withdrawals. So they just started him back on one medicine to calm his nerves and take the edge off, we are a little nervous because of last night, but I guess it's better than watching the poor guy wig out and be jonesing for his drugs. He'll try and eat again tomorrow and if he does well, hopefully we can get that tube out of his nose, that should help him feel better. So if your keeping score we are down to 1 IV, 1 feeding tube, a small amount of oxygen support in the nose canals, 4 heart wires just in case, and only 4 electrode monitors for his vitals.
Crazy, but that is a VAST improvement, we might actually get home before May :) Here's hoping for a quite night!
During the night Julie woke me up in a panic. Thomas heart rate had dropped, it was no longer beating on its own, the box was doing it for him. He was unresponsive, to people yelling at him, smacking his feet, even shoving a tube down his throat to suction him had no effect. Up to this point he had been pretty easy to startle. His eyes sockets were sunk in his eyes rolled to the back of his head, and his little soft spot was all sunken in. So, yeah we were scared.
They yanked all his pain medicine again this time, all the drips, and were preparing for a blood transfusion. We sat their for what seemed like hours waiting for the sedation, and other drugs to wear off, for the pain to shock his little beat up body back to life again. Slowly, his heart started to take its own beats again, first one and then a couple together, and after a while it was beating again on its own. We stayed up the rest of the night and into early morning watching our little boy and staring at the monitors just willing them to confirm our boy was alright.
Things are good now, I won't say that today was uneventful, it wasn't. But, they were good events. He got re-hydrated, they finally let him eat, even if it is through a tube in his nose (which he hates by the way - his arms are tied to the bed so he doesn't pull it out. He is off the heart box, he still has the electrical wires inside him wired to his heart just in case. They pulled out most of his IVs including the ones in his neck and groin, his chest tube, the catheter, and the dressing on his wound. He really is starting to look more like our little boy again. They moved him to a smaller bed, let him try to nurse (he threw up everywhere.) And decided he is going through narcotic withdrawals. So they just started him back on one medicine to calm his nerves and take the edge off, we are a little nervous because of last night, but I guess it's better than watching the poor guy wig out and be jonesing for his drugs. He'll try and eat again tomorrow and if he does well, hopefully we can get that tube out of his nose, that should help him feel better. So if your keeping score we are down to 1 IV, 1 feeding tube, a small amount of oxygen support in the nose canals, 4 heart wires just in case, and only 4 electrode monitors for his vitals.
Crazy, but that is a VAST improvement, we might actually get home before May :) Here's hoping for a quite night!
Friday, April 18, 2008
Surgery Update
Thought everyone might want an update on Thomas' surgery. Well, it was on Tuesday morning, today is Friday night, and I am glad to report he is doing pretty good now. It has not been without our share of scary moments though.
He went through the operation fine, everything went very well he performed like a champ. In fact after they got him out he was on no support for his heart, it was beating well on its own, and they were expecting to take the ventilator out in a matter of hours. Well as many of you know thats when things got worse.
Thomas had to be put on a box that would beat his heart for him, and had to be kept seditated and have a machine breath for him also. It made for some verylong stressful days and nights for mom and dad.
Last night his heart was able to take back over and beat on it's own again, and this afternoon they removed his breathing tube. That was pretty stressful for him because they had to take him off his pain meds for a while to ensure he would breath on his own and not be too relaxed. Three hours later he and us are finally calmed down and getting to breathe. We hope he just keeps improving and he doesn't have to be here much longer, soon they claim they'll be able to pull his chest tube and then some of the IVs (which now number 9 down from their high of 12) can start to come out. We'll hope for that sooner rather than later.
Right now we just want what's best for Thomas. He's still a little horse from having those tubes down his throat for the past four days, but hopefully within a few hours that will be gone too and he'll finally get to have something to eat again for the first time in a long time.
We took some pictures, but I don't have a way of uploading them here, as soon as I do, I will. Thanks for all your thoughts, prayers, text messages, flowers, and everything else you do for us.
Love,
Paul, Julie, and especially Thomas
He went through the operation fine, everything went very well he performed like a champ. In fact after they got him out he was on no support for his heart, it was beating well on its own, and they were expecting to take the ventilator out in a matter of hours. Well as many of you know thats when things got worse.
Thomas had to be put on a box that would beat his heart for him, and had to be kept seditated and have a machine breath for him also. It made for some verylong stressful days and nights for mom and dad.
Last night his heart was able to take back over and beat on it's own again, and this afternoon they removed his breathing tube. That was pretty stressful for him because they had to take him off his pain meds for a while to ensure he would breath on his own and not be too relaxed. Three hours later he and us are finally calmed down and getting to breathe. We hope he just keeps improving and he doesn't have to be here much longer, soon they claim they'll be able to pull his chest tube and then some of the IVs (which now number 9 down from their high of 12) can start to come out. We'll hope for that sooner rather than later.
Right now we just want what's best for Thomas. He's still a little horse from having those tubes down his throat for the past four days, but hopefully within a few hours that will be gone too and he'll finally get to have something to eat again for the first time in a long time.
We took some pictures, but I don't have a way of uploading them here, as soon as I do, I will. Thanks for all your thoughts, prayers, text messages, flowers, and everything else you do for us.
Love,
Paul, Julie, and especially Thomas
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