Teeter TotterIng

The first attempt at going off the vent was not a pleasant one. For the first 5 minutes it went great and then....... Not so good. Thankfully (if you want to say that) it wasn't really because he couldn't handle it respiratory wise. Let me explain, the RT took the vent off and started pep with his breathing treatment and Danny really liked that :). Then a few minutes later she started Mr.Jiggles once that was over with cough assist was started and then came the seizure -YIKES! About 30 minutes later after two rescue meds and back on the vent Danny calmed down. We all needed a break after that! I'm sure with him being down n out, just off then vent, and getting the once over with "pulmnology toileting" that he was just sent over the edge and was overwhelmed. I was bummed but like I said Danny's the boss and he obviously wanted to be left alone so that is what we did.....until later in the afternoon :) RT was wonderful and stuck in the room with me n Danny until things calmed down. The second attempt at coming off the vent was less traumatic on Danny, in turn on us all :). Danny was switched over from vent to his trache collar while he was sleeping and he did wonderful. Success!!!! Then a lil later RT came back and did the rest of his treatments so he didn't get them all at once like the first time. Since coming off the vent Danny did NOT need to go back on, but the machine was left in the room over nite just incase he needed some help while sleeping, but he didn't need to be put back on it so they removed the machine this afternoon :). Then there was a thought that possibly Danny had gotten sepsis so I was a lil uneasy until the blood n urine cultures came back clean, phew! The preliminary results from the sputum culture grew gram negative bacteria so now we wait to see WHAT the bacteria is in the final results. The hope is that the broad spectrum antibiotic he is already on will be effective in killing the bacteria so we dont have to put him on another antibiotic Yesterday afternoon Danny started to bleed out of his g-tube when it was vented so he is now on a med to help coat the stomach lining, which seemed to have helped slow the bleeding down. So they tried to feed him at a slow rate over nite as he hasn't been fed now since Friday afternoon. The feeds seemed to go well.....and then the retching began :( when we went to vent him he was still bleeding out of the g tube. The vented goo was tested for PH levels and that came back at 6 which shows that his prevacid is working and his tummy contents are not acidic so gastritis/ulcer is a harder sell now. Feeds are on hold until bleeding gets better and if it doesn't improve by tomorrow they will start TPN and I'm going to ask for a scope so we can see what going on in that Lil tummy of his. During his RT session this afternoon Danny started to bleed from his trache, geez... with all the work up they have been doing ie suctioning,tobi nebs, positive pressures, cough assist its no wonder why the trachea is irritated. But with the bleeding from both the trache and the tummy, with already low blood levels still from surgery, there was some concerns so they ran labs. The labs came back so so...his platelets are still very low (which doesn't help with the bleeding)..... well everything came back flagged low EXCEPT his CRP level which is an inflammatory marker. High is 1 and Danny's came back at 17, this is better then the 19 that he had in the ER on Saturday but still not good. Labs will be rerun with a few more tests tomorrow morning and we should have a better game plan with what's going on with that.
Dan and Avrianna came down to visit us yesterday, what a great Mother's Day gift....for me to hang out with both my children. I am so lucky and proud to be a Mom to these two AMAZING kids. I LOVE YOU Avrianna and Danny! Avrianna is doing wonderful with Danny and I gone. She does great when it's just her and Dan .... Even better then when I'm there. I'm glad I don't have to worry about that too when I'm down here. BUT Mr Gunner has been a naughty different story. I think he misses us and has some anxiety issues. Even if it's just us leaving for a few hours he gets into trouble. Of course I'm not sure what happened to him before he was at the pound BUT just being left at a pound has to set some separation anxiety issues. I need to get home and do some serious training guidance lessons for Mr Gunner.
As always I will keep you posted. Thanks for checking on us!