Long Day

It has been such a long day. I never thought sitting around would drain me so much! Bryce is doing great. No fevers, blood pressure is good, they finally put his feeding tube in this afternoon, so they will start giving him breast milk tomorrow morning. We got kicked out of the PICU again, another crisis situation. We were there for the 4-6pm visitation and were able to be with him until 5, so it wasn't a complete let down. My mom didn't get to see him though, she was on her way in when they closed the unit down. I'm just so thankful none of these situations have involved my little angel. We will call before we drive back up there for the 8-10pm visitation, but the nurse felt like they would be open again. I hope so, I really want to see his precious face one more time before I go to sleep.

They tried to de-paralyze him this afternoon. (We weren't there for any of this, they try to do things like this during non-visiting hours). Ideally they don't want to keep any patient paralyzed for long periods of time. Mucus and fluid will start to pool in the lungs and any movement will help move this fluid around and not sit and get infected, causing pnuemonia. On the other hand Bryce can't move much or he will hurt the surgery site. It needs to stay completly still. There is a delicate balance they are trying to find where he can 'twitch' or slightly respond to touch but not move any limbs or thrash about. Well those of you that know Bryce personally, know he is not a still, calm little boy. The nurse said his eyes popped open and he immediately tried to flip on his stomach. He wanted to break out of that jail cell crib! Needless to say, that was not the delicate balance they were looking for, so they increased the paralytic medicine and he is completely still again. They will try again tomorrow morning. I don't think they will ever get him to lay there and sleep without a fight. We need his airway to heal, so whatever they have to do for that to happen is the first priority. The movement will come when Bryce can handle it. (And it might have to wait until they take the breathing tube out next week). Hopefully we will have another uneventful night to report on tomorrow morning.