Saturday, April 7, 2012

TWO WEEKS AND COUNTING

Yesterday was quite an interesting day. It was also quite a shitty day. Colby was scheduled for his surgical procedures at 10:30. It was about 6:30. I was lying in bed, half awake half asleep, thinking I really need to get up. I could hear some commotion outside Colby's door and kept hearing "Colby" outside also. I just figured it was the surgeon or someone wanting to get some pre-op stuff taken care of. Uh, no, not at all. The docs and nurses come in and said hey, sorry, but Colby has a big pneumothorax and we need to put in a chest tube right away. It's kind of an emergency. Whaaaat? I couldn't believe it, then they showed me the x-ray. The findings were a "moderate to large" pneumothorax. Yep, that's just what it was. So at 7:00 a.m. yesterday Colby was getting a chest tube placed to help release the air built up between the lung and chest wall (the pneumothorax). Surgeries cancelled, dislike. The pneumo caused his lung to collapse, AGAIN, so guess what else Colby had done yesterday? Yep, another bronchoscopy, dislike. This time we got another pulmonologist to do it, one who is known to be really good (and quick) at doing bronchs. He ran into the same trouble as the other bronch, compression on the lung airways making it difficult to not only "clean out the lungs" but also for air and secretions to clear properly, dislike. OMG, I could have pulled a Forrest Gump, start run-ning, and still be run-ning away from all this mess. But as long as Colby Michael still has fight in him, I'll be right there fighting with him. Then they came back in and pulled Colby's chest tube out about 1.5 cm to hopefully better release the air pocket. Damn that kid has been through it, dislike. And this was all before noon!

Post bronchoscopy Colby did better than with the first one. My guess is they didn't use as much saline down in his lungs. Colby was exhausted last night, just completely wore out. Who wouldn't be after having all that done to them?! He was able to get some rest last night, though, and is bright-eyed and adorable as always. Such a sweet, sweet kid.

We've made a couple small tweaks to Colby's treatment plan. They moved the chest tube placement again today in hopes to better target releasing the air pocket and getting rid of the pneumo. We've started using the IPV machine and stopped using the MetaNeb. These are machines that are like nebulizers on crack. They work from the inside out to help break up secretions. No harm in trying the same thing only different to see if might help. Colby's lungs don't sound as "wet" or "gunky" so I decided to move his cough treatments to every 4 hours instead of every 3. This child needs some more rest! Basically his lungs sound good, hopefully meaning the secretions are clearing up. But his right lung STILL has areas of collapse and that's what we're hoping the bronch helped fix. Very anxious to see his x-ray in the morning. So that's what is going on inside Colby's lungs. Between the outside of his lungs and the pleural cavity we have both collapse (air pocket, aka pneumothorax) and now the effusion (fluid) is back. Really? Seriously? Dislike. So basically Colby's lungs are trashed and we're no better off than we were 2 weeks ago, except that his flu symptoms are long gone. Can't Colby catch a break? Apparently not. I'm getting ready to teach him that Hee Haw song, "if it weren't for bad luck I'd have no luck at all".

Where do we go from here? Hell if I know. Can't really reschedule his surgical procedures until the pneumo is gone, dislike. There's a part of me that thinks crap on it, forget the surgeries, just get him better and get him HOME. They keep telling me a pneumo shouldn't set Colby back that much. That's great in theory, but let's face it, NOTHING with Colby is easy anymore. Not IV access. Not intubation. Not airway clearance and a bronchoscopy. If things had gone as planned, Colby's lung wouldn't have gone to shit and he would be sitting pretty recovering from these surgeries he needs. But then again, it's hard to not get the surgeries done when we're already here, he's intubated, his pain can be controlled well, etc. All we can do is take it one day at a time. So that's what I'll do, or try to do anyways.

Dad went home yesterday after the 2nd bronchoscopy. Colby's dad and stepmom came up today and stayed a good while. Brought Colby a great Easter basket. Colby and I have been decorating plastic eggs with stickers. We're going to give them to the nurses, docs and therapists tomorrow (well, to the ones we like haha). Dad will be back tomorrow afternoon and Mom will go home for a couple days. They have lifted the flu restrictions so hey, we can have visitors now. Hear me?! I said we can have visitors now. Like now, family and friends can come visit. Just sayin. Colby's dad brought up his eye gaze today so once we finish decorating the eggs, it'll be eye gaze time. Oh good grief, no telling what he'll say.

Guess that's it for now. Hope everyone has a happy, HEALTHY, fun Easter. We're going to make the best of it. Not going to worry about not being home, Colby not being in the Easter parade today, not enjoying the great weather, Colby missing school, me missing work, etc. Thank God we have this hospital. Thank God we were able to stay a little ahead this mess and nothing to date has been trauma or an emergency for Colby. I have my Bible with me. Don't worry, I'll be reminding Colby all about Easter tomorrow. Sounds like he'll be getting another Easter basket tomorrow, this time from the Ronald McDonald House. Very nice. He deserves to get spoiled to the max. Bye for now.

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