Tube is out!

The scope was a success! Dr. Woolley said his airway looked better than he expected it would. Yeah!!! The only swelling was from the breathing tube and that happens to everyone who is intubated. The vocal chords appear to be in the right position to heal properly. They were able to get a larger breathing tube back in than he was expecting so that means the airway is larger than he thought it would be at this point!

They let him recover in the PICU instead of recovery. I got to see him right after and he already looked more like my Bryce than he has in a week. The nurse wanted us to wait in the waiting room until they got him settled again. They turned off the morphine and versed and the paralytic was off before he went down to surgery. We got to go back there after about 20 minutes. He woke up pretty fast and started fighting the restraints (that were on because the tube was still in, and they didn't want him to pull it out). About 15 minutes after we went in there they were ready to extubate him! WOW! I couldn't believe he was ready that quickly. They let him tell them when he was ready, by waking up, moving, and crying. And boy did he let them know! There was no problem with him breathing on his own!! He has already ripped out the two IVs he had, so at 2:00 when we had to leave they were trying to find another vein to put one in. They were going to have to give him something to calm him down some. He was screaming (although no sound was coming out--very hard for me to deal with this) and was holding his breath so his oxygen levels kept going down. No one was concerned with the O2 levels though, they knew it was just because of his fit. They want to wait a while before they let him eat. I know they know what they are doing and they have their reasons for this, but my baby is hungry and milk would make him feel so much better, I just know it! Maybe tonight they said. I HATE having to leave him now. It was hard enough when he was sedated, but now that he is awake and crying, I want to be there with him all the time. I know the nurses are great and will do all they can to keep him calm, but I feel like I could do better!

Dr. Woolley said he can scream and move his head and neck however he wants and it won't hurt the surgery site. I'm so glad to hear this, it was going to be impossible to keep him still and quiet! He said that hopefully we can get a private room tomorrow afternoon. But that all depends on availability (and right now there are none).

All in all today has been great. Very hard for me to deal with seeing him so upset, but seeing him move and seeing his beautiful eyes is amazing. I can't wait until he is acting more like Bryce, but I know that might take a while. Until then I'm going to try and hold it together better than I have been today.

Yeah!

We had poop last night!! 5 times in 2 hrs actually!! I know he has to feel better. The poor nurse that had to change him....glad it wasn't me! She would get him cleaned up and settled in and he would go again, she would start all over again, then there he goes with another one! I started with that because I'm really too nervous to talk about what is coming up today. Just please say a prayer that Dr. Woolley's eyes are ready (he had Lasik surgery yesterday!), that Bryce is healed to perfection, that all goes well in the operating room, that his feeding tube stays in (our nurse said that if it comes out in the OR that they probably won't put it back in down there and depending on when he is to be extubated, they might leave it out altogether. I hate to think he will be hungry on top of everything else he will have to go through today), that when the time is right he can be extubated with zero problems, that he can be weaned off all the drugs easily, and that he won't be in any pain or discomfort through all of this. In my mind today starts the second part of all of this. Getting Bryce back to normal so we can go home!!

I will update after the scope as soon as I can. He is scheduled to go down at 11:00am but that could mean anytime after 11:00 really. The earlier the better because that increases the chances they will try to extubate him today.

Jerica, we still don't really know about getting a private room....the WHOLE hospital is full, kids and families were having to spend nights in the ER because there was no other place for them. I do know that he will have to be completely weaned off the ventilator and can't have drips of the morphine and versed in a regular room. He can get them as needed I believe (but they would try some lesser drugs first) but not continuously in IV form. There is a chance that if the hospital stays full, Bryce will be discharged from the PICU. If he can't get a room and is ready to go home, they would just let us go from there. We aren't expecting to get out of here before next Tues. or Wed. though, and it could be even longer. I think today might tell us more about that though.

Anthony brought our mail back with him and we had so many Christmas cards. It was great opening them and seeing all of your sweet messages! (And cute pictures!--Borden and Jack, I'm taking yours with me to the hospital so Bryce can see your smiling faces when he wakes up!)

Tuesday update

The scope is scheduled for tomorrow at 11:00!!!! I'm so excited that things are moving forward now. Nervous, but excited. We got here this morning and they had turned the paralytic off, so he is moving some. He has his cute red headband back on and it is taped to the bed (not as scary as it sounds) so his head won't buck around when he moves. His arms are tied to his legs to he can't get his hands on the breathing tube and remove it. The restraints aren't as bad as I thought they would be, but Bryce is still in a big fog so I'm sure as they take those off (sedation meds) tomorrow or the next day, they will have to add restraints. It is so good to see him moving, even the little bit that he is. One of us or a nurse has to be in there with him all the time though to hold his head if he gets real excited. I imagine they will turn the paralytic back on when visiting hours are over. It is not pratical for someone to stand there with him when we can't be in there. This little movement is good for his lungs though. His lungs looked good on the x-ray this morning, his blood count was good, no fevers and his heart rate and blood pressure are staying steady. All this is great news! Still no poop though. They have quadrupled the Miralax until he goes. They have a waterproof pad under him right now. I'm sure they are expecting a mess when it actually happens!

Anthony went home late last night and is at work today. He will be coming back this afternoon. It is probably good he isn't here to see Bryce moving, he gets so nervous!!! I'll try to update again tonight, but it might be tomorrow AM before I get a chance.

12/18

I tried to update this morning, but I typed out a long post, then lost it all!! I got so frustrated I just closed the computer down. I'll try again....

He had a good night last night. His heart rate was a little high and oxygen level was a little lower than it has been when we left at 10:00pm. They repositioned him in the bed (sitting up more and propped up on pillows) and that seemed to work. His blood work came back with a good hematocrit count this morning, so hopefully the transfusion did the trick. Still no fevers and minimal chest congestion so that is great news!! Still no poop, but they have given him some medicine called Miralax that should kick in any time.

Dr. Woolley came by around lunch time and said things looked really good. He would like to take him down to the OR Wednesday instead of Thursday to do the scope if he can get on the schedule. He doubts he will be able to, but he is going to try. He said Bryce should be all healed by then (but the scope will tell if he is not). The plan then (whether they do this Wed. or Thurs.) would be to put a smaller breathing tube in while he is doing the scope. Bryce would go back to the PICU and sometime later (hours-1day) they will extubate him (pull the breathing tube so Bryce will be breathing on his own). Bryce will have to be completely off the paralytic and the morphine and versed will need to be decreased before they can extubate him. When they turn off the paralytic they are giong to have to restrain Bryce's hands, arms and legs. They can't risk having him pulling the tube himself. This will be hard to deal with. After this happens there is a chance he would have to be intubated again (if he won't breathe on his own). There is also a chance he might go through withdrawals from the sedation medication he has been on. If that happens he will be put on ativan and methadone to wean him from the addiction.

We are headed up there again tonight at 8:00 so I'm hoping for no change, except for mabye news of a big poop!

Update 12/17

Sorry I didn't update this morning! I didn't have any new news, then.....We got to the hospital and pretty quickly the Dr. came in. I had a bad feeling when I saw him. He told us that Bryce's red blood count was slowly falling and they (the group of ICU Drs.) decided he would need a transfusion. WHAT? My stomach immediatly flip flopped. I was so nervous. Of course he told us not to worry, it is fairly common in the ICU, not risky at all, yada yada yada. I was still scared. I didn't want some stranger's blood in my baby (but thank you to all you 'strangers' out there who donate blood!) It turned out fine (so far). I think if he was going to have a bad reaction to the blood, he would have already done so. His heart rate had also increased over night and blood pressure had dropped a little bit and both of those have returned to more normal numbers since the transfusion. That makes us optimistic the cause of all this (lower blood count, higher heart rate, lower blood pressure) was a result of anemia and not infection. He hasn't had any fevers and very little congestion. They tried for the 3rd time to 'de-paralyze' Mr. Wild and Crazy Duke and it didn't work for the 3rd time. Our nurse felt like they would only try one more time, but the Dr. said they would probably try every day. Who knows. Time will tell, but I really think they could try every day with the same results, he wants out of there! I was able to cut his nails today and the nurse told me where she keeps the vaseline for his lips, so I felt like I could 'mommy' him a little bit more today than I have been in the last couple of days. He is getting 35ccs an hour of breastmilk. That is the maximum they will give him. It is = to 26 ozs a day!!! I don't pump that much on a normal day but luckily I have a good stash in the freezer. He is still pretty swollen and really doesn't look like my Brycie. But of course he is still the cutest baby in the unit!

Knock on wood, we have been allowed to stay back with him during all of the normal visiting hours. Hopefully we will get to be with him from 8-10 tonight too.

Please pray for all the children and families who have children in the PICU. There are 19 beds in there and the sickest of the sick in the state of AL and beyond are in there. Some of the stories you hear in passing are so tragic, so please pray not only for Bryce to heal but for everyone else in there. There is an unspoken bond between all of the parents in there and I feel close to them, even though I haven't spoken to many of them. The lady next to us got to hold her baby today for the first time in over a week, I'm so jealous, but also so happy for her at the same time.

Anthony and I had all of our siblings, their spouses and boys and our parents there at one time today. It was great to see them all and feel the love they have for us and for Bryce.

PM Update 12/16

We've had a good day today. Bryce is doing well. The only issue is a little congestion in his lungs and some mucus in his nose. The mucus is to be expected with the two tubes he now has in his nose, it is the body's natural reaction to foreign bodies (breathing and feeding tubes). The congestion could be a problem if it sits there too long (one reason to 'de-paralyze him--get the stuff moving in there so he can cough it up), it could cause infection or pneumonia. They aren't too concerned with this yet. Fever would be a better indication of infection. They are giving him breathing treatments to loosen the congestion and will do chest compressions also. The nurse said he already sounds better from just one round of these.

They took his ear bandage and the cute red headband off this morning. His ear looks really good, a little bruised and swollen, but better than I had imagined it would look. The incision is very small. He was given Lasix today because of swelling (another very common thing for people who aren't moving but are being pumped with fluids and medicine all day). That did help with the urinating, but to me he still looks pretty swollen. The Lasix should help some with loosening the lung congestion too.

They tried to 'de-paralyze' him again this morning. No go. He still wanted to get out! They might try tonight, but probably will wait until tomorrow morning to try again.

My Uncle Lee and Aunt Amanda came to the hospital today and brought us some great barbeque for lunch. It was great to see them and visit with them, and the food was wonderful too!

Thank you all for reading and praying for Bryce. We love reading the comments that you leave, keep them coming!!

AM Update 12/16

No calls from the nurses last night so I know that is a good sign. I'm on hold trying to call up there now to check on him. We finally got in to see him at 9:30 last night. Visiting hours were supposed to be from 8-10, but again, another 'situation' in the unit prevented us from going in there on time. I can't imagine the families of the children in the crisis situations. At least Bryce is in here for a planned surgery and recovery, we knew what to expect and things are going as planned so far.

Susan, his night nurse, just told me that Bryce deserves a STAR! Nothing new overnight to report. They might try to 'de-paralyze' him again this morning. The morphine and versed have been increased to try and keep him more sedated. The goal is to have him moving a little, 'twitching' or slightly responding to touch and hopefully with the increased sedation medications and with the paralytic turned off, this will happen. 2 hrs. until we can see Bryce this morning! Hopefully nothing will happen to close the unit down......

Kiki and Papaw Duke, thanks for being here for us and Bryce and we can't wait to see you when you can come back.

Thank you to Cappy for staying with us for the last 2 weeks, and she's not going anywhere anytime soon if we can help it!! Thank you also Papaw Ruff for being here this week. My dad is so calm with Bryce, I know just hearing his voice is soothing to Bryce while he is in the PICU.

We want to thank my sister for coming down and helping us get ready for the surgery, and for staying here with us during the surgery. She was a huge help! Blakeley, tell Tessa that Reagan misses her cousin so much!

Thank you to my Uncle Tom and cousin Jennifer for coming to the hospital and waiting with us during the surgery. She has been there for me so much the last couple of months and it means more to me than I can express.

We can't wait to see Buddy and Misty today (Anthony's brother and his wife) they are coming in from Clinton, MS for the day.

Borden, we hope you feel better soon!

Jack, we hope you had a great Birthday and a fun party, I can't wait to hear all about the movie.