March 16, 2024

David lasted the night with his scuba mask! I arrived in the morning as they were rounding on David and said he was walking a fine line of needing to be reintubated, and they will continue to monitor him. It wasn’t so much his breathing, but his cardiac output – was this causing too much work on his heart? I went to see him after they finished, and it looked like he was struggling – a lot of rectractions on each breath. They ran some labs on him after rounds and confirmed his lactate had increased and his NIRS had also been trending downward. These both are used to measure cardiac output, so ultimately it was decided to reintubate him. 

Everyone was happy to see how long he had lasted extubated – they did not think he would have lasted as long as he did, so they are encouraged. His NIRS and lactate numbers went in the right direction after going back on the breathing tube as well. David really needs to get more fluid off. They switched his diuretics up again, and added back the one that caused him to have potassium issues the other day. Adding that one back, means they will watch his potassium levels even more closely to ensure that he doesn’t have a spike again. 

David was also very agitated after being reintubated. They kept increasing his sedation in the hopes that would help, but it still took a while for it to have an effect on him. He eventually fell asleep and stayed asleep for a couple hours. Most of the day has been spent trying to get him to rest and be comfortable.

Eli had skating lessons this morning, which Adam came home to bring him there. Afterwards, Eli decided he just really wanted to stay home today, and after spending most of the time when he’s not in school at the hospital for the last 6 weeks, I can’t say that I blame him. So Adam, Eli and Anna spent the day at home taking care of things some things, playing in the backyard, playing music on their guitars and the piano, and the kids got to play with toys that they haven’t had time to play with in a while. It worked out since David was supposed to be resting this afternoon, so there was not much happening in his room. 

5 thoughts on “March 16, 2024

  1. I can only imagine how challenging it must be to see your baby get agitated….I pray that you feel God’s arms around you when situations arise….He is ALWAYS there for you all and David🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

  2. So glad David made it through the scuba challenge, and that he is back at better cardiac levels with the intubation. And it makes me happy that the rest of you got to have more of an R&R day at home, at least for the kids… hope you got a little rest too in between all the kid fun and catching up. So good that David is in good hands. We’ll keep praying for you all and now, especially for David’s fluid levels to get where he needs them to be.

  3. David really looked like a super hero in his scuba mask. Maybe a new version of Aquaman? Hope he can go back to that look soon . A day of rest for all sounds just as therapeutic as any meds. Prayers.

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