Burke woke up for little while in the morning. He was relaxed and just looking around. It was great to see his little eyes again. Later on that day while I was taking a nap, Tyler and Jan were able to see him wide awake for a long time. Martha was there for part of the time too. He will begin to wake up more and more as the days pass.
Today is the beginning of day 4 post-op but here is a summary of yesterday (day 3). Burke's 3 chest tubes were taken out. There was one draining fluids behind each lung and one draining the fluid behind the heart. I am told that older patients recovering from heart surgery, say that can verbally communicate their discomfort, that chest tubes are their #1 complaint. With these chest tubes gone Burke seems to be resting more comfortably and his vital signs have normalized. This probably doesn't mean a whole lot to many people but these vital sign numbers are what we watch on the monitor for most of the day. Today's stats were a welcomed sight. His heart rate has been hanging around 135-140 which is basically his heart rate when we are at home. His systolic blood pressure has been in the 95 /120's and his oxygen saturations range from 72 to 79. For Burke, these are the vitals he needs to hold on to. Another improvement today has been when Burke has his moments that he squirms and tries to escape. In days past his vitals would go everywhere, today during these episodes he has held descent vitals and they quickly go back to normal when he settles down. Needless to say today has been a welcomed day.
Burke was weened from the nitric acid that was used to keep his Pulmonary Arteries open and relaxed. He seemed to handled it quite well - this basically means that we are one more step closer to leaving the PICU and ultimately one step closer to heading home. Tomorrow we are hopeful that he will come off the ventilator (breathing machine) and then begin to be weened off a medication that he cannot be on when he goes to a normal hospital room.
Burke's medication lines. There's a couple of them don't you think?
Burke woke up for little while in the morning. He was relaxed and just looking around. It was great to see his little eyes again. Later on that day while I was taking a nap, Tyler and Jan were able to see him wide awake for a long time. Martha was there for part of the time too. He will begin to wake up more and more as the days pass.
Burke's medication lines. There's a couple of them don't you think?
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5 comments:
You guys are continually in our thoughts. I admire your ability to see the good among so many trials.
He just looks so sweet. I love you Burkie! And by the way, your hair is way darker than mine!! Love you all, give Burke a big kiss for me, Ryan and Kyle.
glad for the good news! you guys are awesome!
Check out those lines! Wow - what a trooper! Glad to hear that things are looking up today.
I can't imagine trying to keep a one year old from moving! Looks like you are getting closer. baby steps, huh.
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