Hello everyone! I can almost say happy new year!! Hoping 2015 will be better for our family than 2014. Ugh!! Have to say I am not sad to say goodbye to this year! Ty went into surgery about 8 this morning to try to put a larger drain in his chest. When the surgeon got started, she replaced the old tube with a new, larger one but did not see very much fluid come out even though there was a LOT showing up on ultrasound. She made the decision to put a 2nd tube in that specifically drained behind his heart--the first tube sat primarily towards the front side of the heart. Almost 320 cc or close to 11 ounces was removed right away. A LOT again!!! Poor kid! He was very close to going to ICU for bipap after surgery because they could not get his oxygen level up. It took quite awhile but they were finally able to get him weaned down to nasal cannula at 3 liters. He has been pretty sleepy most of the day, much less pain but almost to the point where he is too sleepy! We have had to keep decreasing pain medicine as right now they have accumulated too much in his body and he just needs time to clear them. They are talking about the possibility of leaving the tube in for at least 5 days to make sure everything has drained and hopefully does not reaccumulate! He is on high dose steroids to help with the inflammation which is what they are leaning toward as the cause for all the fluid. These are worrisome in transplant kids because of all the side effects they have--in this case, they are necessary to help with the inflammation. Despite all that he has been through these last couple days, his spirits are good. He is so tough--tougher than I could ever be! I always think if he can keep going with a smile on his face, what do I have to complain about?? We hope you all have a wonderful new year! We are hopeful for better things ahead! We miss our friends and family and hope and pray that we will all get to be home soon! Thank you for all of your support over this last year! We would not be here without you! Have a great night!!!
Posted on: Thu, 01 Jan 2015 04:12:46 +0000