good nights sleep

Well we took the big step last night and both, Damian and I slept at home.

And Caelan was fine.  He did great.  His heart rate showed he was resting comfortably.

Yesterday ENT came in and changed the dressings so he looks better too!  That boy sure is going to have some stories to tell... He's got a road map of scars all over his torso.  Damian figures he could pull off stories of a past full of wrestlig crocodiles or knife fighting...

I know all the tubes can seem overwhelming but really it's not that much.  Kinda sad that I feel that way, eh?  It's scary how this is just all to familiar and comfortable.  How easily we settle into this old CHEO routine... 

Caelan will remain intubated, which is the tube in his nose, until at least Wednesday.  This gives him oxygen when he needs it.  He was on 100% initially post op but has been down to 25% and still sating in the 90s so that's good.  This is monitored through a sat probe that is currently on his toe but gets rotated between thumbs, fingers and toes regularly. The intubation tube is also helping hold the vocal cords apart to let them heal properly. 

He still has his g-tube feed and has been back on his Pepatmen Junior since Thursday.  There was some thought given to playing with his feeds but it's been decided to just keep him on a nice slow continuous rate for a while yet.  The Dietician was in to see him and was ambitious to start bolus feeds and incresing the rate by which he gets his feed.  Caelan didn't agree with this plan (for the record I'm not convinced that Mom or Dad were all for it either!)  so were back to continuous for now.  Slow and steady.

His IV is in his right arm and he's still on a continuous infusion of morphiine and versed (midazolam).  His blood work came back high in sodium so the saline solution has been dropped and a more appropriate solution is being run with these.  There are also concerns about his levels of creatnine and urea, as usual... these are measured to verify the functioning of Caelan's kidney, which we know is never great to begin with.  The good news is that they came down slightly from yesterday to today, so we hope that trend continues.

He also has three probes that are stuck to his chest to monitor his heart and respirations.  As well there's a blood pressure cuff that gets rotated between arms and legs taking continuous readings.  His blood pressure is monitored very closely, especially because he has regularly had what's called a 'wide reading'.  His solitary kidney may be having a hard time keeping up with all this stuff and is being watched very closely.

Yesterday morning there were some concerns about an elevated heart rate and we were concerned about some underlying pain but overnight he was in the 110s and today the 120s so all is well and the boy is resting comfortably.

The slight temperature that they were concerned with has been resolved with a fan.  Our boy runs hot.  We're all in there with our hoodies and huddled in blankets while he's lazing about in his diaper with no need for a blanket!  The bloodwork they did showed no signs of an elevated white blood cell count so no big concerns about infection.

We have the same nurse on tonight so if the boy remains calm and boring all day we'll probably both head home for another good nights sleep.  Well as good as they can get when your baby boy isn't sleeping under the same roof. 

Bring on the boring Caelan!!!  Only a few more days and then we'll get all wild and crazy, okay?