Hey, guess where we are?! Still stuck in this flippin' hospital, that's where. I didn't update the last couple days because quite frankly, I didn't feel like it. Seems like things around here are just a constant stream of ups and downs. CO2 too high, CO2 too low. Tweak pressures accordingly. Ready to extubate, that didn't work, re-intubate. Stop feeds to extubate, restart feeds when re-intubated. Colby wasn't having BM so doubled his MiraLax dose. Then he restarted antibiotics and now has diarrhea. Just didn't feel like getting into all that lately. Saturday was my meltdown day, and I do mean meltdown. Right after morning rounds when they told me Colby's culture was growing something, I lost it. Friday I was high as a kite thinking Colby was ready for extubation. I said let's do it Sunday instead of Monday. Then Friday afternoon/evening Colby had 3 destat episodes. That's not good, really not good. We took a respiratory culture sample and sure enough, Colby has another infection starting. Luckily we caught this before we decided to extubate. All we know right now is that the culture is growing Gram-negative rods. I have a sneaking suspicion he has the same infection he had 2 weeks ago, that it has recolonized. Lovely, perfect, suburb, fan-flippin-tastic. This means start antibiotics, AGAIN, and give Colby more time, AGAIN, before he is ready to extubate. His secretions had started to thicken and turn a little yellowish, but the antibiotic has improved that. His secretions are definitely thinner. Wish I had a dollar for every time I suctioned tons of slobber out of his mouth today. Buckets of it! Plus his lungs sound better today than they did yesterday. He is even "clearing" meaning his lungs have good sounds in all lobes, no scratchy, coarse sounds of junk swimming around. Once the culture defines exactly what funk Colby has growing and we decide whether or not he is on the correct antibiotic, I'll get a feel for a more exact "E" date. I have my list all ready to go. Just gotta wait for Colby's lungs to get on board. He's still the same silly Colby. Not wanting to sleep, afraid he'll miss something. I can't believe he doesn't try to sleep more. The last good night's sleep he had was sometime in August for crap's sake! Rolling his eyes at the nurses and RTs when they say something to him he doesn't like. My sweet, silly boy!
So today is my birthday and I'm kinda thinking big woop-dee-doo. I've also had a lot of up and down emotions today. Bummed of course that Colby is still in this hospital, enough already, we want to go home! We lost a family member today after a long, courageous battle with cancer. I was very sad to hear the news. This is NOT how I would have planned to spend my 38th birthday :-) yeah, I know, just let me have that fantasy for a moment. But those that love and care about me tried very hard to make my day special and you can't ask for much more than that. My mama went down to the cafeteria, bought me a Hostess cupcake, stuck a candle in it and sang Happy Birthday to me. Very sweet. My bro, sis-in-law and nephew stopped by for a visit and brought me a beautiful necklace. Joni and her mom brought me Pizza King yesterday and you know I loves me some of that! Amy got me a new sweat outfit to have while hanging out here. Dad and Sam got me a very pretty new rosary, cupcakes and Sam made me a broccoli casserole. The emergency chocolate my stepdad got me was much appreciated, too. (the common gift for me being food, imagine that!) Being surrounded by those who love you so much make this place, and this not so ideal birthday, bearable. However, when I get home, I think a little get-together, late birthday celebrating might be in order.
Colby is getting 1 of his antibiotics now. Then he'll get his MetaNeb and his cough treatment, and maybe, just maybe, he'll go to sleep. We've had the same nurse and RT for 3 nights in a row. They work well together and they take very good care of him. So I'll be able to rest tonight, too. Always a bonus.
And I'm totally pissed the Colts lost. Kerry Collins stinks.
Future updates to follow as soon as I know anything different. This kiddo is getting better, just been oh so slow and a bit unsteady. Sure does make me appreciate the non-hospital days that much more. Bye for now.
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