Sunday Morning, 8/19/07

I've been negligent in my posts the last few days, there has been a lot going on. Let's start with Thursday...

Thursday Evening, 8/16/07

My dad flew in from Colorado today. His flight arrived in Dulles, which is a really long way from UMMC in Baltimore (or our house in Westminster). Fortunately he asked for GPS in his rental car, per my recommendation. He met me at my office, grabbed a quick lunch, then we drove home to pick up Alyssa from daycare. After Christa came home around 6pm, I took him up to the hospital to see Nathan. My dad was visually upset by Nathan's condition. Nathan has begun to develop a redness in the skin around his chest and abdomen. The doctors and nurses aren't sure what it is, but think it might be cellulitis. They don't seem overly concerned about it, expecting that the antibiotics he's receiving will keep it in check. We talked with the nurse for a while to find out his latest updates, then we headed back home.

Friday Evening, 8/17/07

As usual, Christa spent the whole day at the hospital at his bedside. She's been keeping me updated whenever the staff provides her any new information or if Nathan's vitals or condition changes. My dad offered to babysit Alyssa, freeing me up to join Christa at the hospital. Once I arrived, she informed me that the doctors were planning on inserting a tube into Nathan's abdomen. The CT scan had revealed a large pocket of fluid that was likely causing a lot of the pressure on his belly and diaphragm. She had signed off on the procedure consent around 5pm, but the surgeons were tied up in another surgery, so we waited for them to arrive.

By 9pm, we were getting very impatient and finally learned that the surgeons would not be performing the procedure this evening. Fourty minutes later, the surgery intern stopped by and explained that they were concerned that Nathan's bowel was obstructing their path to the target area. There was a risk that any attempt to insert the catheter would puncture his intenstine and cause further complications. We understood their reasoning, but were very upset that a) none of the actual surgeons had stopped by to tell us personally, b) that Nathan would apparently be getting worse as the weekend wound on (they previously explained that they don't like to perform operations over the weekend due to reduced staff), and c) that the intern seemed to be blaming the PICU for the miscommunication. The PICU doctors and nurses have been awesome in feeding us information and answering our questions at all possible opportunities. Not that we have any less respect for the surgery staff than the PICU, but we'd rather not see anyone point fingers in this situation.

Tired, frustrated and depressed, we went home. Normally we might have stayed the night with Nathan, but we both really needed some space between us and the hospital staff.

Saturday Evening, 8/18/07

Today was a very good day.

The weather outside was absolutely perfect. The forecast was for sunny skies and eighty degrees, and Mother Nature certainly aimed to please. We called the hospital and received a fairly routine report; Nathan's vitals were fine, he broke his fever (again), but the swelling and redness were about the same. Since nothing was scheduled for the morning, we made plans to burn off some stress and anxiety: our babysitter (Miss Jessica, you're the best) came over to spend the morning with Alyssa; my dad and I enjoyed a perfect (weather-wise) round of golf at Wakefield Valley; and Christa enjoyed a long nap in her own bed.

Recharged, Christa and I planned to head over to the hospital around noon. Right as we were walking out the door, the hospital called us to let us know the doctors had changed their mind and wanted to perform the procedure today. However, the procedure was going to be handled by Interventional Radiology. This group is able to see inside Nathan's abdomen as they insert the catheter, resulting in a much lower risk to his bowels. We immediately gave them approval to move forward and headed out to the hospital.

They had already finished the procedure when we arrived. There was already a noticeable reduction in Nathan's belly size. Almost 350mL of dark brown fluid was contained in a collection bag attached to the new tube, and it the output was still flowing readily. We were very excited and hopefully that this might be what has been keeping Nathan from recovering.

By 7pm, the bag had collected upwards of 700mL of fluid from Nathan's abdomen. His chest and abdomen were much flatter, and we noticed creases in his arms and legs where previously the area was swollen and tight. Relieved and optimistic, we headed home to get some rest.

Sunday Morning, 8/19/07

Everyone woke up late this morning. I called the hospital to find out Nathan's status is still good. He has no fever, his vitals are very good (they've lowered his ventilator settings even more), and a total of 1000mL has now been extracted. Christa and I decided to split the day up at the hospital, so I headed in for the "morning shift". The redness in Nathan's chest seems to have faded a bit, although the color in his abdomen looks about the same. The swelling in his arms and legs has continued to decrease and his "boy parts" look better (but still very swollen and uncomfortable). I brought along a small iPod speaker system for playing Nathan's favorite music while he rests. That's all for now.