Glenn Recovery–Day 1

It has now been a little over 24 hours since Asher came out of surgery.  Things have gone pretty much on schedule for him today.  Shane and I slept up here last night.  The bed, while great to have one, isn’t too soft, and there are machines that are going off and beeping throughout the night.  Despite all of that, I think I was tired enough that I fell back asleep pretty quickly each time I woke up.  I did have to get up around 4 to pump also.  This morning, around 9:00, they removed Asher’s breathing tube and took him off the ventilator.  They also removed one of his drainage tubes, and moved the other one to a small bulb to collect fluid instead of the big bucket on the floor. 

He was a bit restless and uncomfortable, and his blood pressure was a little higher which can indicate pain, so after they took the breathing tube out, she gave him half a dose of morphine to help him relax and rest, and it seemed to really help.   He has only briefly opened his eyes, but mainly just starts moving around when he is needing more medicine.  His cry is still weak and his voice scratchy, like he needs a big cough, mainly from the throat irritation from his breathing tube.

This afternoon, around 3:00, we were able to give him a bottle of glucose water.  It was nice to finally get to hold him.  He was excited to finally get something to eat.  He took about half of the bottle, but then he had to cough, which is so painful for him, and he fell asleep once he calmed down.  I held him for awhile while he slept, and when he woke up about an hour later and took the rest of the bottle and half of another one. 

   

 

My mom brought the boys up this afternoon, and they had fun playing some Bingo and winning some fun prizes.  They have great child life activities here, with fun things going on every day for the patients and their siblings.  They were excited to see Asher for the first time, and they gave him soft kisses on the head before leaving to go home.

Tonight, he finally got to have some breast milk.  He started out with two ounces, and he sucked it dry and was upset there wasn’t more  He had to be happy with his pacifier for now.  He can have more next time if he responds well to this one.  We are praying his tube drainage remains clear so that he doesn’t have chylothorax and have to go on his yucky formula again, but we will know more after about 24 hours of being on breast milk.  We are hoping that tomorrow we will be able to move out of the ICU and down to the pediatric floor.