Day Seven Post-Glenn - Tuesday, May 19, 2009

"Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.

Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer."

Romans 12:11-12

Tyson had a pretty ok day. After his chest physio this morning, the physio therapist suggested we put him in this cool blue rubber chair to see if he would enjoy sitting up. HE LOVED IT! HE SMILED AT ME FOR THE FIRST TIME IN A WEEK! Vicki was there to witness the big smiles and he even gave her a few too! Tyson was also given a few toys to play with too which he seemed to enjoy.

Unfortunately he may not get to enjoy holding the toys for too long since he keeps wiggling the peripheral lines out of his hands and kicking them out of his feet. They took the central line out of his neck since it was causing discomfort and instead put two in his feet and one in his hand. But he keeps on kicking or wiggling the lines out somehow! Last night he had two lines replaced, since they both came out of his hands. So they put one back in his hand and one in his foot (his big toe, actually.) Today he managed to kick the one off his foot and the one on his hand might need to be replaced too since he somehow wiggles it out. He is a brat! The bruises from his Enox needles are finally almost all gone but now he has bruises all over from all the IV lines they keep having to put in! He's also had his hands restrained the whole time so that he doesn't yank out the breathing tube but sometimes when we let his hands go for a minute while he is getting physio or being repositioned, he sneaks his hand to his face to pull at things. And he is so quick too! He almost self-extubated today!

His chest x-ray looked better again today and the pneumonia seems to be clearing up quite nicely. The cardiologists are happy with his progress and are amazed at how much better he looks today. And he sure was happier today than most days, only crying when they suctioned him or did physio. He also was awake for a good part of the day and had good long naps throughout the day too.

His sats are still low, in the high 60's for the most part today. If his x-ray improves again tomorrow, they will try the t-piece on the ventilator again to see if he would be ready for extubation soon.

A nurse practitioner talked to me today about some of the results from his bronchoscopy that he had done yesterday (the procedure where they sent a camera into his bronchials.) Apparently one of the main airways in the left lung is compressed. This could be totally unrelated to his heart condition, he could have been born with it, OR it could have happened during surgery when the pulmonary artery was widened and the artery is now compressing against the airway. It's impossible to say for sure why he has this, but it could be a reason for the low sats as well. It's difficult to say for sure whether this is the cause, since we are still waiting for the pneumonia to clear up first. Apparently the moraxella bug is a nasty one and it can take a few weeks for the lungs to completely heal after catching this bug. So right now it is difficult to say if the doctors are more concerned about the compressed lung or the pneumonia being the cause of the low sats. I guess they deal with one factor at a time and go from there. I am trying not to look too far ahead and am praying that the sats will improve once the pneumonia is totally clear.

Till next time, please keep praying for our little guy!

Mel:)