On a Sunday mornin'
--Tom Petty, "Rebels"
So apparently Jay was listening last night after my post, and decided to be a little rebel. On the bright side, his blood pressure went up, so the docs have now taken him off dopamine (one of the drugs supporting his heart). They started tweaking overnight, and this morning they stopped it. So far, he is tolerating that just fine. He also had a poop, (hallelujah!) so he is now getting a bit more food through his nasogastric tube. The plan is to slowly increase it each day, and decrease his IV nutrition.
On the not so bright side, his fever came back. So he's in for another round of cultures and a couple more days of antibiotics. They are culturing the gunk from his lungs, his urine, and blood from each of his IV lines (jugular vein, artery in his arm, vein in his other arm) to see if they can find the source of the infection.
Fevers are a big deal - with so many lines in, the risk of infection is high. With the last fever, they considered that going off iso can cause fevers (along with the shakes he experienced). This time, we have no explanation other than infection, but we're hoping to catch it before it becomes a bigger problem. His arm around his IV looks a bit red and swollen, so that IV came out. We hope that is all it is.
They are also halfway through doing an echo of his heart function. They started, and then got called away to do an echo for a child in surgery. While I can read an echo just well enough to be dangerous, even I could see that his heart function looked better than the one last week. We expect them to come back to finish this afternoon and then get some results a few hours after that. Hurry and wait, hurry and wait...
Unless our little rebel has other plans, they hope to wean him from the vent in the next 24 hours. Again, that would be another HUGE step, especially when we're asking him to breathe with lungs full of junk. So, pray that goes smoothly ... one breath at a time.
5 comments:
I remember when Christopher was in the hosptal, and we got too familiar with "reading" the machines. It can be a good thing when things are looking good, but it freaks you out when they don't look just right. We are continuing to pray not only for little Jay, but your entire family. Just remember to take time for yourself now, because he will probably need you more in days to come. We love you guys!
We are still thinking of you so often and continue to pray for all of you. Our hearts are with you, and we so appreciate knowing all of the details of how you are doing, even Luke. Hang in there. Hope the abx can take care of that fever, and Jay can continue to make progress.
Kimberly Taylor and family
When you get back home...let's have some time together--Jay seems to be listening to you better than Jesse does us!! Know we love you, are praying for you and hoping for the day when this will all seem like a long-ago memory as you watch your "little guys" rough-house together as only brothers can.
Thanks for all the thought and energy that goes into your updates...we appreciate being able to be "with you" as much as possible.
--Cara Lynn
So encouraging about the continued improvement of his heart function. Will pray for the extubation and the fever.
We love the updates, Jen. Thanks so much for letting us keep in touch. We sang Servant Song two Sunday's ago, with Becky playing flute. Mary Alice started talking about singing the song for Jay. Becky and I finally asked her to stop or we would not be able to do it at all. From our family, The Journey and even the choir know that we are all praying for Jay. The baby steps as well as the Giant steps we celebrate with you. The tears and fears we share with you also. Know that you are loved by many.
Ginger
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