It's been a busy morning in the PICU. Here's the latest and greatest on sweet Colby boy:
First some background. Prior to Colby getting sick, we were in the process of scheduling 2 surgeries at once, oral surgery to pull several baby teeth and having Colby's ascended testicles put in the proper place. The teeth pulling was the priority. I thought what the heck since he has to be intubated and going through surgery we'll get the testicles done, too. This was scheduled for April 11 on Colby's spring break next week.
Then along comes the flu for Colby, along with pneumonia, lung effusion, intubation, strong antibiotics, another lengthy hospital stay, etc. This hospital stay, along with the last one, has been horrible as far as IV access goes. It seems to get harder and harder to draw labs, get IV's and PICC lines for Colby. His little arms are so bruised, and 2 different people on 2 different days couldn't get his PICC line in. So I made the decision for Colby to get a port. I think this will save Colby a lot of pain in the future and will certainly come in handy should an emergency situation occur with Colby, which we all know he has had many in his lifetime. So now comes the decision as to what procedures to have done and when are Colby's lungs healthy enough to undergo surgery? This morning Colby had an ultrasound done on his lungs. His right lung is giving us fits. Even after 11 days of around-the-clock cough treatments, MetaNeb treatments, hypertonic saline (I had them stop using that several days ago as I thought it was irritating his lungs), Xopenex, Pulmozyme and good old fashioned positioning changes, his lung is still cloudy on x-ray and sounds junky after cough treatments. This morning the ultrasound showed that the area in question is more collapse than fluid, meaning that the broncoscopy talk needs to put back on the table. A bronc will help "pop" the area open, or at least that's my understanding, and they can also work on getting the lungs cleaned out better, get cultures, etc. We also changed the settings on his vent, moving the PEEP up from 8 to 10, to see if that lung will pop back open. It's a stubborn little booger for sure!
After much, much thought and consulting with anybody and everybody that would talk to me, I've decided to have Colby's port put in and have his oral surgery done. I'm not worrying about the testicles for now. Originally Colby was scheduled to have the 2 procedures done today, but at the end of the day yesterday I just didn't think respiratory-wise he was ready, so I said no, let's give him another day or so. After general surgery and dentistry got their schedules together, the latest and greatest plan is for Colby to have the procedures done tomorrow, Wednesday. I'm pretty sure they will go ahead and do the broncoscopy also while he is in surgery. So, that's 1 port placement, many baby teeth being extracted, 1 broncoscopy and 0 testicle procedures. But stay tuned, it could all change in the next hour or so.
I've given myself an attitude adjustment and have been much better the last couple of days. I'm back to having that love/hate relationship with this hospital. HATE that Colby is sick, intubated and has to be here, but LOVE having this hospital near and that Colby can get treatment at one of the best hospitals in the country. We have a room at the Ronald McDonald House across the street. It's been great. The people there are super nice and helpful. Always lots of food available, which we all know is really important to me, haha. I went over and slept there last night, 6.5 continuous hours! When your kid is intubated in the PICU, any solid sleep is a blessing. Trying to find other things to do with my time besides sit and eat. Not easy though, not much else to do. And when people bring you snacks, you can't be rude and not appreciate them, right?!
I'll update later. Probably something will be changed! But that's how Colby rolls, keeping us on our toes at all times.
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