Wednesday Evening, 8/8/07

I stayed at UMMC's waiting room last night. It was a rough night; one guy's snoring kept everyone awake for most of the night. I got about 3 hours of choppy sleep. When I went back into PICU around 5:30am, Nathan's heartbeat was back over 190 although the rest of his signs were ok. The ICU chief wanted to get him moved to a different breathing machine, an oscillator. The one he's been using emulates regular breathing, but it can be rough on a child. The oscillator operates much faster (up to 300 breaths/min), but with a much lower force. I was planning on leaving around 6am, but decided to hang around until they changed machines. I was getting pretty nervous as his oxygen level dipped into the 60's for a short period. The doctor was very quick to get him off the oscillator when she saw it was failing. I headed out around 6:30am expecting that they would be able to get it working before Christa arrived at the hospital.

Christa called me at home around 9:30am (I was taking a short nap, expecting to go into work before lunch) to let me know they were still having problems. There was some concern about the fluid around his lungs and were considering inserting a catheter to try draining some off. The staff was also a little concerned about swelling in his "boy parts", but this was not uncommon. Her tone had me worried, so I changed plans and decided to head back to the hospital.

I arrived at the hospital around noon. Not much went on for the next hour while they checked his tests and vitals. They were indeed planning on inserting the catheter around his lung but were waiting for the surgeon to finish up elsewhere. We decided to grab a quick bite downstairs. Near the end of lunch they called us for authorization to perform the procedure. We agreed and headed back to PICU to hear about it from the surgeon. He explained that they were going to insert a catheter in Nathan's "third space" to alleviate the fluid build-up around his lungs. This seemed to be limiting his capacity and also causing extra pressure to his lungs, keeping the oscillator from working properly (it exerts less force per stroke than the other breathing machine). The respirator expert (for lack of a better term) pulled us aside to explain what they were hoping to accomplish with this procedure. This guy was awesome; he's been doing this for 20 years and it really shows. He put us completely at ease and made us very comfortable about everything that was going on.

By this time it was 3pm and I needed to head out to pick Alyssa up from daycare (Christa is staying at the hospital overnight). Just as I was leaving, the surgeon walked over and let me know he was done and that it went great. They were optimistic that this would help alleviate the pressure around Nathan's lungs. After picking Alyssa up, I called Christa up for an update. The doctors had also decided to insert a catheter into Nathan's abdomen to try and relieve some of the fluid there as well as in his "boy parts". This was going well and they had already seen some fluid extracted. His blood gas readings and lungs are doing so well they've decided to keep him on the original breathing machine. This is pretty much all the news I have for today, but it seems things are taking a positive turn.