Happy, ecstatic, jumping for joy and doing cartwheels down the hall to report Colby is having some forward progress! Yesterday was a really good day (even though we're in the hospital in the freakin' TCC unit) and today has started out well also. Don't want to jinx it, but maybe, just maybe, sweet boy has turned the corner and is leaving this nasty ileus in the dust.
Respiratory wise Colby is doing awesome. I think they caught the pseudomonas really early. He's tolerating his cough treatments well. No drops in oxygen or outrageously high heart rates. To be on the safe side and to make sure we got his lungs "cleaned out" post surgery, we had been doing IPV and CoughAssist 4x a day - 9AM, 1PM, 5PM and 9PM. Starting today we're going back to his home routine, just 3x daily - 9AM, 3PM and 9PM. If I think he needs an extra cough here and there, no big deal, we'll just give him a couple sets of CoughAssist. I think he'll do fine. As a matter of fact, I know he'll do fine. So weird to be in the hospital with Colby and his lungs are NOT the issue.
Colby's incision looks great. He continues to have no redness or oozing at all. Today is post op day #11. I have taken some pics of his incision along the way. Took one day. I'll post them later because I took them with my camera and I'm not sure how to download them to their computers. Duh.
Colby's pain is amazingly at a minimum. Or at least that's what Colby is "telling" me. He was in such a deep sleep he set off his low heart rate alarm last night. They have it set at 80, and his heart rate dipped down into the 70's here and there. That's a gooood thing. Means Colby is sleeping more like he would at home. When he's in a deep sleep at home his rate will be in the 70's, sometimes in the 60's. So yay for good, sound, comfy sleep. We've been able to cut his valium dose from a scheduled dose to a PRN (as needed) dose. He hasn't had any valium since 3:00 yesterday afternoon. He sat up in his chair for 1 hour 15 minutes yesterday, and after that I thought he could use a little happy juice to calm him down and make him comfy. We took him outside for about 20 minutes. It was so nice just to feel the sunshine on our faces! Maybe we'll try to do it again today.
And of course the big question is how is Colby's tummy/ileus doing. Better! He is going to the bathroom on his own. If Colby knew how much I've talked about his peep and poop over the last week he would be so mad at me. So let's just not mention it to him, ok? He had what we laughingly call a "code brown" yesterday. He had a bowel movement. The PCA and I were in the middle of changing him, and Colby said hey wait, there's more. So he started going again. And he went, and went, and went. Hard to believe that much stool could come from such a little butt! Took us forever to get him cleaned up. Then we were rolling him to the other side to get his brief on better and he peed all down his leg. Goooood stuff. Actually I've never been so glad to see a bunch of poop in my life. Means this damn ileus is resolving and Colby is getting better.
We restarted Colby's feeds. I was very nervous to do this, but hey, gotta try some time. We started out with straight Pedialyte at a low rate, 5 mL/hour again. Slowly worked up to 20 mL/hour over a couple days. Now Colby is getting Pedialyte and Vivonex TEN (amino acid protein that we use in his feeds every day). It's very diluted and we're still going at a slow rate. I think we're up to 30 mL/hour now. I won't let them change the rate as quickly as they want. They want every 6 hours and I said nope, we're going nice and slow, every 10-12 hours will do just fine. Why push it and worry about Colby's tummy shutting down again? No thank you.
So it's all good news! Colby's dad and stepmom are up visiting with him right now. My dad went home yesterday and I've got Mama here with us the next couple of days. There hasn't been any mention of it, but I'm sure if Colby continues to tolerate feeds, we'll be outta here in 3-4 more days I'm guessing. Oh what a wonderful thought - HOME! I'm trying to take a lesson from Colby. He really is the strongest, bravest, non-whiny person I know. So I'm trying not to be negative and whiny also. I AM grateful for this hospital, and I AM grateful my parents can come and help out. Sometimes I get a little "nervy". The room we're in is very small, and seriously, my butt is numb from days on end of just sitting and waiting for Mr. Ileus to leave town. We've had continuous problems with various pumps on Colby's pole beeping with "air in line" messages. That's annoying as shit. But what can you do? We've had some visitors and I love getting everyone's texts and Facebook messages. I'm not the best at answering calls. Seems like every time someone calls, I'm in the middle of doing something with Colby, like lately cleaning up poop. But I'm glad we have a bed in Colby's room. I'm glad the cafeteria is decent. I'm glad there are distractions like coming here to the Family Resource Center to get on the internet and blog. And most of all, I'm glad Colby is starting to feel better. If I can just hang on to my nerves and my sanity for a few more days, I think Colby will have this ileus licked. Not fun to watch your kid be sick and uncomfortable. I'm planning some sort of big party for when we get home. Something for Colby to look forward to. A late birthday, welcome home, you deserve a big fat party kind of thing. Don't know when or where, but I'll figure all that out later.
It's almost 1:00 and I haven't eaten yet today. I know, so unlike me, right? Think I'll take Mom's car and run out and get me something. There's a Chipotle down the street, and it's calling my name. I'll blog later with I know more good news!
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