Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

The progress department delivered us a bit of a set-back yesterday afternoon.  Daniel developed some respiratory distress out of nowhere…difficulty breathing, turning blue, and needing to be bagged to get his oxygen sats back where they should be.  The first episode happened while I was pumping, so I didn’t have the chance to freak out (which is a good thing).  He sounded really icky (for lack of a better word) in the upper-respiratory department.  Trying to just get him to cough and clear things out became the major focus of the afternoon.

At one point, the nurse thought he may be aspirating (oral meds just disappeared when they went in his mouth, no swallowing action at all), so everyone felt like he should have an N-G tube just to make sure he wasn’t getting food or meds into his lungs.  I’m not really thrilled about it…but if it’s going to keep him safer, then so be it.  While the tube was being placed (and I stepped around the corner so I didn’t have to witness the struggle), Daniel repeated his pattern of difficulty with breathing, oxygen de-saturation, turning blue and needing to be bagged.  Ughgh!  I’m thankful I didn’t witness it (again), but gee whiz…I can’t step away for 2 minutes!

The tubes won this round, but we’re still a net of –1 in the tube department!

He was put on high flow oxygen and given some steroids and lots of suction.  Of course everyone starts talking RSV or some other virus, so he’s being tested for that.  Which means nurses have to wear gowns and masks to care for him, and it feels like we have the plague because we’re sort of in isolation.  Fun times in the ICU!!

I arrived this morning relieved to find Daniel doing well and looking pretty good.  Since he is on high-flow oxygen he can’t have anything by mouth, so that means the wicked N-G tube is scoring the points right now.  (Ha ha ha…we shall triumph, I promise!)  He has been maintaining his oxygen sats, his blood pressure is doing well (though he’s on oral meds for that – through the N-G tube of course) and he sounds a TON better.  We’re still waiting for the RSV testing to come back, but the first part of it is negative.  He’s also being weaned off the high-flow oxygen, so hopefully we’ll get back to where we were by the end of the day.  Fingers crossed!

Here are a couple pictures from this morning.  He was really alert with eyes wide open when I got here.

Look at all the medicine machines!  (There are a couple in the background that you can’t really see.)

Chest tube drains (they’re removing one as we speak, and he’s not very happy about it)

Still sleepy most of the time.

Thanks for all the prayers, thoughts and love.  We are feeling and appreciating all of it.