The doctors were pleased as they came by this morning that David was starting the day better off than he did yesterday. He was apparently very purple yesterday, by the time I arrived yesterday, his color was very blotchy with large areas of purple, but not completely purple. Luckily his color has continued to improve. Other highs from today include this afternoon he got all the leads on his head removed. Neurology must have not seen any signs of seizure activity, which is a great relief.
Otherwise, David has made slow progress. Perhaps slower than they would like, but progress nonetheless. He remains on a form of life support at this moment – the ventilator does his breathing for him and he has a pacer which is beating his heart for him. They have been able to turn down his oxygen throughout the day, and he has tolerated it well and maintained his oxygen saturations. They took off his muscle relaxer and added a diuretic so that hopefully he’ll start peeing off his excess fluid. He is still very swollen and hardly looks like himself. At his current rate, it will still be a couple days before he’s in a place where they can close his chest up. We did inquire what that looks like today, and they will close it up at bedside, and his pacer wires will remain in place and be removed at a different time.
David still has swings, but not nearly as much as yesterday, so that’s progress. The goal is to keep the swings to a minimum. Removing the muscle relaxer allowed him to move this appendages slightly, which caused a blood pressure increase. Rather than put him back on the muscle relaxer, they are trying something that will make him more sleepy. It’s a fine line to keep him calm, but not completely paralyzed so that if he does move he doesn’t have large blood pressure swings. The older kids came down so we could all have dinner together. During the time we were eating, David had hypotension and then a swing to hypertension and then was just settling back out by the time I returned to say goodnight after dinner.
David’s glucose has also been elevated today, but it has come down throughout the day. The elevated numbers cause fear of an infection, so they’ve been administering some antibiotics just in case. No other labs have come back with a sign of an infection, and his lung suctioning has been clear so it indicates no lung infection.
I can’t remember if there were any other things worth mentioning today. It was a lot less busy in his room today since his swings were less. And even the swings he had were not as drastic. David is slowly making headway, but rest seems to be what he still needs more than anything. Balancing rest and allowing him to wake up more and not having swings in blood pressure, while also trying to get him to pee off some of the extra fluid is the main goal at the moment.
So relieved to hear that David’s making progress. Glad that Eli and Anna could be with you today, even with the drama of those swings. Praying that David will have healing rest, more balance in his blood pressure, and some successful peeing to lose those unneeded fluids. Still praying for his medical team, that they continue to track all the details, make good decisions, and give him the care he needs now. Praying for you to get good rest too. You must need it!
David’s progress is encouraging ❤️ I pray for continued progress 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻
Praying for the continued progress. Praying for you and your family in this very stressful time ❤️❤️❤️
I love the picture of big brother and sister 💕 My prayers continue … strength and courage for you and Adam to get through this oh so difficult time, and that the love of Eli and Anna for their little brother continues to grow and hold you all.
The hard part of David’s situation is the unrelenting tension and the balancing of each moment. You both are awesome with how you get through everything and stay positive. Give all three kids a kiss for me.