Friday, September 18, 2009

Moving Out

Well, Ethan moved out of the PCICU today! He remained stable overnight last night and took a trip to room 5307 around 10:30 this morning. However, Ethan doesn't do anything without a little bit of drama. Once we got to step-down, the nurse was assessing him and realized he felt a little warm. Sure enough, he had spiked another fever. We think she caught it right away, because after a dose of Tylenol and some cold packs, he was back to normal.

Unfortunately, that wasn't before the doctor ordered more blood cultures, which meant another stick. AND, if anything gets this mama fired up, its someone who has NO CLUE what they're doing while TRYING to draw blood from my baby. After about 30 minutes, a NP from the ICU came over and got it on the first try. Reason #84 why I wish we could be discharged straight from there. Anyway...I digress.

So, here we are in step-down, hoping to go "you know where" by Sunday or Monday. Ethan's still on a little bit of oxygen, which wasn't the case the last time we left the ICU. I don't know if I'm just being overly worried, but I'm praying that he can be weaned from it and still maintain good oxygen saturations; y'all can be praying for that as well.

Otherwise, he's doing well. He had a sedated echo today, so he's still a little groggy from that. The results showed that the new pacemaker is helping to create a more normal rhythm between the ventricles, which is exactly what we were hoping for. The right ventricle still looks "stressed", but that's to be expected after surgery. Continue to pray that the function would return and this new conduit will last a very long time.

Speaking of the conduit, Dr. J decided to use something called a Contegra Conduit. Given that it works as it should, Ethan won't need another heart surgery for 4-8 years! This is HUGE!!

So, keep praying. Jeramie and I are already starting to feel the stress of being cramped up in a tiny room. I would say it's even worse than last time, since we don't have an actual bed to sleep on this go 'round. I'll be taking the recliner in the corner, and Jeramie will be on a couple of egg-crates in the floor.

Come on Sunday, sweet Sunday.

3 comments:

Amanda said...

It sounds like you are frustrated, yet there is some great news in all that your wrote. Thank you for sharing your heart. I will be praying for you to be home before me :) Can't wait to give you a hug in person. And, a huge YAH for no heart surgery's for a long while. Still praying

Anonymous said...

Hi Joye and Jeramie! I hope I can run over and see you on Monday. I know what you mean, the second time Dagen was in the hospital, I just couldn't wait to get home. I felt so secure in how to take care of Dagen that I felt people just didn't get it. I hope the weekend goes pretty quick for you and he begins to breathe without Nasal Cannula very soon. Keep your chin up! Kiss that sweet baby for me!

Anonymous said...

I hope Ethan, you and Jeramie were able to get some rest last night.

If there is anything, anything at all, you need me and Paw Paw to do, you know we are just a phone call away.

Love you guys so much,
Grandma A.

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