April 23, 2024

Well, it was kind of an interesting day today. David started off by being visited by his friends from vascular who placed a peripheral IV in his arm. This was because the folks from CT called and said that they would be ready for him at 8AM, but he needed an IV for the contrast. Vascular finished placing that IV shortly before 8, and then CT said they would be ready for David at 8:30. So there was a mad rush to get everything ready for David’s field trip to CT (at least it’s not as big of a deal with just 1 IV pole, and only an oxygen tank needed). However, at the last minute, the CT was cancelled. Like I said yesterday, there are differing opinions of whether this scan is necessary or not.  

The decision was made to wait until after his echo and then perhaps if the echo was inconclusive, maybe a CT scan later in the week. Ultimately, after echo, the CT scan was scrapped entirely. David’s surgeon says David is improving, and his treatment would not change regardless of the results of that scan, so why put him through it. Also, before David would get any future heart surgeries, he will need a cath, which would show what’s going on with his pulmonary vein better than other imaging. So, what started as a potentially busy week in terms of scans, has been completely eliminated. We were told the pulmonary vein looked comparable to last week on the echo, so it’s stable. We’re hoping to chat with the cardiologist on service tomorrow to get all the details because I thought I saw something new based on how I read it, but I’m honestly not sure. 

Other improvements – David’s feeds were advanced by 3 ml per hour, and they’ll continue to increase by 3 ml every 12 hours. He has continued to have some bloody flecks once in a while, but nothing has shown a reason for it. His x-rays have all been good, and his tummy is soft, and he’s passed all their other exams. Today, they did switch his lovenox anticoagulant to a lower dose. It’s unsure if this will stop the blood, but it may help.

They also turned off David’s air – but left the cannula in place (mostly because his NG tube is taped to it). There were a couple times today that he was angry that he started to de-sat, so it got turned back on, but for the most part, David is breathing without anything else. Also, his dreaded nebs run through it. If he doesn’t have a cannula, I was told that they would probably try to use a mask to administer the nebs – and hopefully David wouldn’t need the SCUBA mask. 

David had fun with OT today – he went to the floor and did some sitting up and tummy time over the boppy. Today it was my turn to try to get him into position on the boppy. It will definitely be easier with less lines. After OT left, David and I hung out on the floor for a while. He started to get a little fussy and then Fern and her mom came by. Once David was changed to a laying next to Fern with his arm touching her leg, he quickly mellowed out and started to fall asleep. He found her very calming. She had to leave for the studio though, and he soon woke up after she left and he was upset, so I placed him back on his boppy and he snoozed there the rest of the afternoon. A few times he awoke and we read some books, sang songs, played with toys, and then he was back asleep. My last half hour there, I just held him and rocked him while he slept. Wow – has he gotten heavy! We had hoped to leave the room on a wagon ride today, but between needing to share his nurse and learning we needed to order a wagon and wait for it to arrive, we ran out of time. Hopefully tomorrow he can explore either outside or at least the hallways with his wagon. 

Last night, David pretty much slept from 6 PM to after 7 AM. And then today he pretty much slept most of the day as well. Echo comes in the morning, and he must just wear himself out screaming when they need to put the probe near his neck because I think he slept most of last Tuesday as well. This evening, David has been watching the Timberwolves, but he promised his nurse that he will sleep through the night after the game ends. We’ll see how trustworthy David is on that promise, because so far he has proven to be someone that should never be trusted.