10:00pm: No real updates right now.  When Kristen talked to the nurses at 8 tonight, there hadn't been any change in his breathing.  We are both expecting the surgery to be cancelled as we feel they are going to want some improvements in his breathing before moving forward.  We will call at 6am to see if there are any changes...

4:30pm: Looks like surgery may be a go for tomorrow. Cardiology cleared him so all teams are getting ready for tomorrow. In the morning, he will undergo one more ECHO and one more xray to ensure that he is stable. We still don't know the time slot that he will be put in, so I will update when we know. They told us to prepare for about 3 hours (half for the actual surgery, and the other half for prep, transport to OR and transport back to the NICU).

His oxygenation seems to be marginally improving (they have slightly lowered the breathing frequency and his saturations seem to be holding up). They are assuming that some of the collapsed portion of his lung may be functioning again -- I think the breathing treatments, the suctioning and the CPT seem to be helping.


1:00pm: Not a fun sight to walk into the NICU and see your son laying in bed with a blood transfusion going in at a vein on the right side of his head. His arms are already used and I think that his feet are all used up. The head, believe it or not is one of the easiest places for an IV... so if it easy for the nurse to give it, it means that it is less painful for Reid. Just not pleasant to look at.

When we got into the hospital today, his sats were starting to decline, but he had just had another ECHO and he was starting to wake up. Any kind of stimulation causes stress and in turn hurts his saturations. Also, any sort of muscle movement, other than just laying down and relaxing, causes the body to require more oxygen. While we thought the nurcuron (paralytic) was to keep Reid unaware of his pain, we found out today that it is predominantly used to restrict his movements, which in turn deduces the levels of oxygen that his body requires. The nurse made the analogy that, in a car, its fuel tank is only so large. How you drive the car, fast or slow, defines how much fuel it is going to consume. So, if we are driving slower, we can use the fuel more efficiently. Long story short, they administered another dose of nurcuron to keep his body more oxygen efficient and his oxygen saturations went back up into the low to mid 90s.

The ECHO results should be available in about an hour and we are anxious to see the results. His lung is still partially collapsed and we are praying that this can correct itself soon so that we can come down on his oxygen requirements. Another xray is scheduled for the morning. I think we have seen enough between yesterday and today to know that surgery is probably not likely for tomorrow as well. Maybe Friday???

9:00am: Reid didn't improve much over night and his xray showed that his lung was still collapsed. His CO2 levels are hovering in the 60s and is still on 100% oxygen. His hematocrit level (red blood cell levels) was at 34, and when on the vent, that requires a blood transfusion (normally they would have let it get down to 30 before transfusing). The red blood cells are the ones that are responsible for delivering oxygen to the body. The nurse this morning was able to suction a fair amount of fluids/mucus out of his throat, so I am not sure if some of the medicines that they have put him on to help lubricate his lungs are causing this.

On a different note, Kristen was able to get a good 9 or 10 hours of sleep last night so she seems to be well rested this morning. Me, on the other hand, only got about 6, which is about normal, but somehow struggling to wake up. Anyway, we will eat some breakfast and head out to the NICU late morning. Our friend Alison is coming to visit this afternoon. I am sure it is going to be another long day...