November 2, 2023

David has had a fairly uneventful day, and remains relatively stable. His stats are trending in the direction of needing the pulmonary artery bands placed, which is going to happen tomorrow. He is the second surgery scheduled for tomorrow, so we do not have a time. In the meantime, they are trying to control his blood pressure.

His right foot has also been more blue than the rest of his body and there has been plenty of trouble finding a pulse in it along with his right leg. Yesterday, they thought perhaps it was due to the IV in his right leg artery (the same place they entered his body for the cath procedures), and overnight, they moved that IV to his left foot. However, it seemed that his right foot was still having issues, so today they did an ultrasound on it and found he has blood clot in that leg. He is on a little blood thinner, and by this evening, the nurses were able to find a pulse in that leg again. It’s still a little weaker than the other leg, but it seems as though the blood thinner is working. 

David has also had a couple blood transfusions at this point. It’s not due to blood loss though, it’s mainly to get his red blood cell counts up. He has some amazing nurses who are taking care of him – he has at least 1 nurse dedicated to his care only at any given time, and sometimes more. He’s also no longer on a paralytic sedation, and he moves some now when he’s tickled or he doesn’t like something. He even opens his eyes to peek at us briefly. He is still sedated though, because as the sedation wore off over night, he was trying to take out his breathing tube.

We have also started to take out some of the things we brought for David to make his room feel more personable. Adam has tried to hang up the “Welcome Little Muggle” sign my co-workers made me when Eli was born. It kept falling with the tape, but someone found some hooks and it seems to be holding in place now. Adam also pulled out the little Gryffindor Lion I got for David – since he’s definitely going to be a Gryffindor with how brave he is. This evening I saw that the nurses covered David with his lion blanket that has his name on it. We still have some artwork that Eli and Anna colored to hang up, and a few gifts from Eli and Anna to give him, but I think we’ll wait until they can visit so they can give him those gifts themselves. David’s bassinet also has a stuffed octopus that I think a nurse made, along with a weighted hand, and some matching octopus blankets. 

Some highlights from today:

• This morning Pastor Carrie came down and David was baptized. 
• Fern the child family life puppy came by and we got a good puppy fix in
• David gripped my finger and refused to let go. 
• Eli and Anna did a night time video call, and got to see David with his eyes open, and then told him good night. He seemed to be more alert when he heard Eli and Anna’s voices – he must remember hearing them them and really love them.