Post Op PICU Day 3

Thankfully, all the prayers from everyone seemed to have brought peace to Diego throughout the night. He slept okay, had a few ice chips and kept them down.  This morning, he has a sinus rhythm (he is setting his own normal heart rhythm) so they have the pacemaker set as a backup if his heart rate falls below 60.  During the night they started backing off the IV blood pressure meds and started oral BP meds this morning. He has kept that down so far too. He is still sleeping so not moving around much and pretty quiet and peaceful at this point.  

During the day, he has made progress.  The chest X-ray showed improvement in the fluid between his lungs and chest wall and he is continuing to keep small amounts of fluids down.  All of this means, they are ready to start pushing him.

They moved him into a chair. It was very painful for him, but a needed move to get him progressing. They reduced his oxygen and he is able to keep his oxygen saturation in the upper 80s lower 90s. It really needs to be in the upper 90s. So, he has to work on deep slow breaths which he finds painful in his chest.  The pacemaker is supplying occasional backup for him when his HR drops below 60.   His blood pressure still goes a little high (142/74) when he moves around. He will need to stay in PICU one more night. Basically, he has to move even though it is painful. 

They took out the chest tube at 4:00.  He was anxious about having this done.  He wanted it out, but it is a large tube so he was afraid of the pain.   I'm learning Diego is a lot like his mother. He likes to know everything...the good, the bad and the ugly.  He had me take before and after photos of his tubes so he could see exactly what he was dealing with. He didn't like it, but needed to know. He did great. They gave him morphine just before the procedure (which is like yanking on a water hose) so Diego fell asleep as soon as it was over.

I took the opportunity to walk back to the Yawkey Inn to shower (I hadn't done that in awhile...ugh). We are finally starting to see the light at the end of this step. I'm trying not to get ahead of myself just focusing on the here and now. I spoke with my girls this evening, they seemed really happy so that was good to hear. 

Diego quote of the day…

Diego:  “Mom, when do I get to go home?” 

Mom:  “Diego, we have to take it one step at a time.  The next step is they will be moving you to the regular floor tomorrow.”

Diego:  “I don’t want to take steps…I want to take the elevator.”