We were notified by PICU this morning that Alexander was recovering from the surgery and was holding his own. Apparently, the problem right now is that he has a fever (expected because his body is responding to the trauma of the surgery) and metabolic acidosis.
The fever is getting hit with Tylenol up the, well, let’s just say he didn’t get it via the route we customarily use when we give it to him for his teething. Finally, he was able to get it by mouth and that will probably work better considering that he’s been pretty healthy on the other end. Like a race horse…I’m just saying! 🙂
He’s trying to compensate for the acidosis by an increased breathing rate but there is only so long he can keep that up before they would decide to put him back on a ventilator. The plan for right now is to see if it can be allowed to run it’s course without resorting to sodium bicarbonate or falling back to ventilation.
He was asleep when we arrived at 1100 (the unit is normally locked down from 0700-1000 for doctor’s rounds) but did get progressively more alert. Apparently he had been looking for us earlier and not seeing us at his side nodded off again. But he was more than happy to wake up for us and a couple of bottles of Pedialyte. If that doesn’t tell you how desperately hungry the boy was, I don’t know what will. He doesn’t care for the Pedialyte at home…at all!
The incision looks very nice and it doesn’t look like Dr Bruce came down as close to the ear as last time (probably because he didn’t have to based on where the hot spot was). He still has all of his hair so we don’t have to worry about any reverse mohawks!
By the way, if you are interested in spending four years in medical school…don’t really waste your time on that. The discussion turned to when the nasal canula could be taken away and just as the doctor was going to order it removed…Alexander took matters into his own hands and removed it himself! Who needs fancy degrees and student loans out the yin-yang, eh?
But after a hard moment’s time of playing doctor, he decided enough was enough and nodded off to sleep.
Through the day, the number of IV lines has been reduced and the arterial line in his left hand has been removed. He’s got the Disney Channel on the TV but he’s not really interested in it. He’s been trying to fight the urge to cough (because obviously it would hurt his head) but he’s got some upper-respiratory stuff he’s got to clear at some point. But he’s got the really good pouty lip going right now…you know the one…you did *THIS* to me. Yep…don’t you know it. If you look carefully on the left side, you can see that lip is drooping slightly which would be some of the left-side weakness they were expecting.
We got a chance to raid our favorite Indian restaurant in Adams-Morgan and it was clear we had forgotten just how much they pile on the plate! That’s good that we get another meal or two out of it!
The rest of the evening was spent at Alexander’s side until it was time to head back to Falls Church. Daddy didn’t blow the navigation for the second night in a row…WOO HOO!
