More forward progress today - so much so that he has orders to move out to the regular "peds floor"?! No more ICU's?? YIKES. Fortunately, there were no beds available in the regular peds section so he is still in the PICU for now. It sure makes this momma feel better knowing that he has a nurse doting on him. :)
Today, he had his arterial line removed and so he is down to a regular IV (to receive medicines) and his NG tube (feeding tube). Of course, he still has a lot of patches stuck to his chest that are monitoring his heart rate, respiratory rate and oxygen rate. But those have all been good today. I did try to hold him for a few minutes this afternoon and he got so irritated by something (I think he is starting to get hungry) that his heart rate and oxygen rate started to go way up, so I put him back in bed. He was sucking the life out of a pacifier, I could just tell that he was getting hungry. He was still just receiving 15 cc/hour by feeding tube, so I asked the nurse about increasing his feeds since they had been at this rate for the last 24 hours and he was handling them fine. She asked about it when the doctor made his rounds and after a speech specialist came to check out his suck and swallow function. He passed his test with the speech person, so the doctor was fine with having him take 45 cc/feeding. He can take as much as he can handle by bottle and then the rest through his feeding tube. Nurse said she tried the first one at 5 pm and he took 30 cc by the bottle and tired out, so she gave him the other 15 in his feeding tube. I was just so glad to hear that they were allowing him to have more food at each feeding now. Hopefully he will be more satisfied now.
We are certainly closer to bringing him home!! He needs to continue to not have any oxygen sat. problems as well as continue to eat well for them. Here's hoping! Thank you SO much for each and every one of your prayers, no matter how short or long. :) He has certainly come a LONG way and we continue to pray that he will not have any oxygen problems, esp. as these larger feedings are introduced to his system. We never imagined he would be able to come home without any sort of oxygen, so here's hoping that piece stays 'stable'!!
Thank you ALL so much! I think we can finally see some light at the end of the tunnel...
John & Joanna
Joanna,
ReplyDeleteI am SO glad to hear how well everything is going! Just a few things about the general floor. #1 get him more food. When Hagen was only 5 wks they were only giving him 45cc of food every 3 hours. He was so hungry & after much arguing with the nurses & doctors, his feedings were increased to 90cc every 2 hrs! He was much more comfortable! #2 The nurses don't come around very often, and they don't make an extra trip if one is crying either. They are just left there. I hope some one will be staying there over night with him. I totally regret the nights Hagen was by himself. If I could do it again I would have left Erich Heinz at my parents another few weeks so I could have stayed in the hospital w/ Hagen.
Good luck!
Wow! He is moving right along! That is fabulous! We will keep the prayers coming!
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