A Mother's Touch

Today could probably best be described as a fountain of frustration.  This morning at "rounds" (the brief meeting where the doctors discuss the day's game plan) they discussed the probability of stinting his sano tube (to keep it open wider, longer) and thus pushing his "Glen" surgery back. Previously, they had talked about this week for the surgery, then yesterday it was next week. Now today we find out it could be further down the road. It's just tough mentally, when we had been originally been planning for a March surgery, then possibly next week, and now we aren't sure.

 

Then there is his oxygen saturation. The doctors want it at a minimum mid 70's to 80's (until his catheter) but sometimes it dips to the 60's when Declan gets agitated or excited. Typically they would add oxygen and air to his nasal cannula as needed to bring his O2 levels back up - but often times today, Declan would not respond to these efforts and he would remain in the 60 to low 70's before his O2 levels would finally rise. It is very stressful watching the monitor all day, waiting for his numbers to dip and watching how the doctors and nurses respond.

Tonight I returned to the hospital from work and found his ng tube had come out. Tammy and I cringed as we listened to Declan's high-pitched scream and we nervously watched the nurses replace his tube. We repeatedly looked at each other and thought the same thing, "we could probably do it better".  An x-ray was then taken to check the placement but the tube was not visible in the image - the best they could surmise is that the tube had coiled in his throat. So once again, we listened to his scream and watched the nurses attempt to insert the tube. After a few unsuccessful tries, Tammy stepped in and began inserting the tube but came up to some resistance so passed it off to me I got it in a few more centimeters but after hitting more resistance we saw the marker tape had slipped so we had hit the bottom of his stomach which was why it was no longer inserting very easily. It was in! Next we had to wait for another x-ray. But just in case Declan wasn't traumatized enough, the nurses returned to draw some blood. (They had tried a few times today, all unsuccessfully.)  But this time they brought the "heavy hitters" in to draw the blood. Declan began wailing again, and a few minutes later, blue faced and sweaty, his donation was complete. But before he could fall asleep, the x-ray technicians returned, removed him from his comfortable position, and took a picture of his stomach. Luckily, the feeding tube was in the right spot. The poor guy was exhausted, traumatized, and as angry as you have ever seen any 3 month old.  Tammy nestled him in her arms and he began falling asleep.

We should know more about the game plan tomorrow after his catheter.  Depending on what they see they will most likely either stint the sano, or bump his surgery up. We shall see. . . .