Saturday morning, we had a beautiful sunrise entering our PICU room, overlooking the East River and Roosevelt Island (pay no attention to the dirty windows).
The sunlight gave William a warm, beautiful glow.
As we've learned, each hospital's equipment is a little different.
We all took turns sleeping on the "couch."
Aunt Elaine and Uncle John came to check in on their little Godson.
By 5pm Saturday, we were feeling a little punchy out of sleep-deprivation. We got in some much-needed giggles....that is, as long as you weren't the one sleeping (thanks for being a good sport, Daddy!)
You could still see the surgeon's markings to realign William's belly button after the thoracotomy. The white bandage under his incision was supporting his left chest tube and he continued to be catheterized.
When Dr. LaQuaglia came for rounds at 8:30am he said William was doing everything as expected, or at least within the range of expectation following a major surgery. He required slightly more pain meds and sedation than may have been expected, but so far, all was going smoothly. The swelling of his body, which had been increasing steadily through the night, was expected following an involved surgery. He told us William would likely be on the ventilator until at least Monday or Tuesday.
Throughout Day 2, William’s swelling increased considerably. He required two albumin infusions and a red blood cell transfusion. Labs were drawn every 8-12 hours.
William remained on dopamine to keep his blood pressure stabilized. Apparently, the PICU had many serious cases in the unit that required the attending doctor's attention. We had waited all day for Dr. Pon to become available to surgically place a new A-line in William. Around 9pm the fellow came to prep William and realized he need additional sedation medication to keep him calm during the procedure. The meds and attending finally arrived at 11pm.
We were all asked to leave the room for the procedure. Due to William’s size and severe edema, the fellow and resident had trouble getting the line in.The four of us tried to wait patiently in the main waiting room, some of us even falling asleep out of pure exhaustion. We got occasional updates from William’s nurse, but overall, the minutes seemed to pass with agony. Around 3am, Fred and I were ready to throw a fit....we had been away from William for four hours to place an A-line....and his darn surgery to remove a massive tumor took only 9 hours! On top of it all, I was getting increasingly concerned with the fact that William was under further sedation and loads of pain meds for all the poking and prodding of this procedure. What complications would this all cause now?
The line was finally in place at 3:30am…it took 4 ½ hours to place the arterial line! It was in place in William's left SFA (superficial femoral artery).
1 comment:
I know it's a year later, and still, reading every line of this caused my heart to break, anxiety to shoot little shivers throughout me... I cannot even imagine what it was like for you all living through it, first person, last year. I am SO grateful for William, and SO grateful for you and the strength God gave to you, William, and the doctors who perform such amazing miracles daily.
I continue to pray that all of this is forever behind you, despite knowing that you will probably still have to fight some of the later complications that such severe surgery may cause your poor little fighter.
I love you all so much, and can only begin to express my deepest and most sincere gratitude to God that He has blessed our family with William! All of your strength through all that you've been through is an inspiration!
<3
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