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Thursday, December 30, 2010

12.30.10 - Long day, but good report


Today was a long day.  The weaning has officially started and boy is it different having a 15 month old versus an 8 month old!  Wiggily, wiggily and squirmy ALL day.  I left around 11 am today and was home to nap and shower and got back here around 4, but Dustin and my mom said he had been awake and squirmy the whole time I was gone.  Not necessarily in a bad mood or in pain, but definitely waking up more from the sedation.  He still has not fully opened his eyes, but has been awake and alert.  He responds to my voice and has been waving bye, clicking his mouth to call for our cats (tha'ts his verbal way of saying "kitty" we think, because he does it all the time while he is chasing after them!) and pointing to things in the room.  He is also saying momma and dada a lot.   I know most of this is the Precedex wearing off (makes him babble like crazy!) - they stopped that med this morning.  He is now on a Ketamine drip which they are starting to wean down, Tylenol/Oxycodone for pain and then a combo of Ativan and Fentanyl for just before his IPV treatments.  He JUST fell asleep after being a squirmy worm all day.  I did finally get to hold him this afternoon, which was great.

They did take out his catheter this morning, but his chest tube stayed in because he still had some drainage this morning.  They said that it would definitely come out tomorrow morning, so hopefully that will help his comfort level also.

He is responding well to the new respiratory treatment IPV.  Its basically an oxygen mask they hold to his face and it delivers high burst of medication into his lungs to help "pop" out the portion of his lung that are not all the way dilated...I think I got all my words right in saying that!  Oh the medical terms/definitions still don't come easy for me!

They said we would probably be in the heart unit through the weekend.  Apparently over holiday weekends, they tend to leave you were you are at and not move patients around much.  This was great news as we would prefer to be here than on the regular floor any day!

Well, tomorrow is New Year's Eve!  Can't believe how fast this past year has flown by, but I am SO ready to get it behind us.  It was definitely the toughest year for me and I think it's safe to say that for my whole family as well. 

We actually got a chance to take a few pictures today finally, but most came out kinda blurry because we were hesitant to use our flash.  It's been hard because we haven't wanted to stimulate Liam in any unnecessary way, so we've opted not to bust out our big camera.  I've only taken a few quick shots with my iPhone until today.  But since he was clearly more awake this afternoon, we decided we should take the opportunity to take some pics...and Liam probably looks a little blurry because he was constantly in motion!



Liam and daddy

Liam and mommy


Our nice big room!

Liam pausing in his wiggliness....Poor thing, we eventually  had to tie his arms down so he wouldn't pull off his oxygen mask!

Thank you again to all of you who continue to pray for us!  All the caring messages and actions have been a blessing for us as well!  We are truly blessed and in awe of everyone's generosity and love for our family. 

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