Making Progress

Day 2 of Jacob's post operation procedure was filled with progress.  We showed up this morning to the hustle and bustle of two nurses just finishing up the extraction of his ventilation tube from his mouth.  Jacob was not happy, although I can't imagine that I would be either if I had a tube stuck down my throat and couldn't talk, cry, or breath on my own.  His temp was 102.6 and his CO2 levels were a bit on the high side.  So, they took blood and sent it down to check for infections which would cause the spike in temperature. 

However, by the end of the hour Jacob's temperature had dropped from the 102.6 to a fabulous 99.4 degrees F.  It seems that he had just been working hard to get that darned tube out of his mouth and his temperature had risen in the process.  Once the tube was out, all of his statistics stabilized, he calmed down, assumed the position (back slightly arched, and head tilted back as far as it can go) and fell back to sleep.  Occasionally he would wake up and they'd give him a small dose of pain killers, but they couldn't put him on an IV drip because every time they gave him a drip he'd fall into a deep sleep. His heart rate would dip into the 70's (it's usually hovering around 100 - 110), and his oxygen levels would drop into the 80's (usually around 90 - 95%) because he'd breath so shallow when asleep. Luckily, during the 8+ hours I was there I only saw them need to administer drugs 3 times. Other not-so-exciting, but still nice-to-see events included unhooking him from the temporary pacemaker, removing the sensors from his back and his forehead that monitored blood flow in his organs and brain, removing his internal thermometer, and weening him from 3 different medications.  We also saw the removal of one of his monitors, noticed he's down to 5 IV bags, and 7 pumps.

 The kicker was that by dinner time, Jacob began to wake up. What was really neat was that he acted as if nothing had happened.  His eyes were open, he was looking around, sucking on his lip (another trademark of his), and watching his mobile.  After another 30 minutes, he was asleep again without the help of medications and without a single peep or grimace from his face.  It was absolutely wonderful to see the calm back on his face and no sign of pain.

I talked with the nurse and she said that his tubes were draining almost nothing from his chest any more so the doctors were hoping to remove them tomorrow, as well as possibly the central line, plus they will be rooming him with another child which means he isn't quite to critical now that he needs his very own nurse all day long.

All in all, it was a good day full of progress. We didn't get to hold him as hoped, but that disappointment was far outweighed by the fact that it appears that our son is healing quickly and isn't experiencing much of the pain we had been so concerned about.  There is still much healing to do, and I've heard that removing the tubes will be painful, but we are seeing significant progress and that's truly what matters now.