Surgery Summary and Update

Rowan's surgery lasted about 2 hours yesterday and was "boring" to quote the surgeon. They gave him some heavy whipping cream (yes, heavy whipping cream) through his feeding tube to make his body produce more of the fluid that had been draining out his chest tube. That way during the surgery they would be able to see where the fluid was coming from and clamp the tubes.

Well, as Rowan would have it, he'd really slowed down the chest tube fluid yeesterday to almost nothing - and when he went down to surgery...the cream did nothing. They didn't see any fluid. They went ahead and stitched a few places to make sure that they were keeping the fluid from coming back - then they super loaded him with heavy whipping cream to see if anything came out. Nada. Since surgery, his tube has put out minimal amounts of fluid that look like normal post-op drainage. His x-ray looked good so it isn't pooling somewhere else.

Long story short - looks like the fluid is gone...but it may or may not have been the surgery. Oh well! Moving on!

Since his surgery, he has been doing well at going back down to lower support from his ventilator. He hasn't had a bowel movement (NOT AGAIN) so they are holding his feeds and trying some laxatives to get things moving. Not that I can blame him...they gave a lot of heavy whipping cream.

They are also lowering some of his sedation and weaning him off the narcotics in place of some that are given in doses instead of drips. He has needed some fluid added because of lower blood pressures post-op but is stable and they are controlling it. It should normalize within a few days.

His goals for today:
Poop
Down Rate on Ventilator
TPN (IV feeds until his digestive system starts moving again)
Increase Lovenox (blood thinner he will be on until he switches to aspirin because of the shunt in his heart repair - not because of any problems)

We're settling in for slow progression to home now. The sooner he poops the sooner we'll feel better about him being ready to just...recover. I really am struggling with being away from Evelyn this long. I miss my little girl and I'm hopeful that Rowan will be moved to a normal floor soon so she can come stay with us and spend time with her little brother. My grandpa is also in the hospital for what will be the last time. His health had been deteriorating for a while, so this is not unexpected, but still a trying time for my family and it is hard to not be able to be there for my granda.

I think one of the hardest things about being in the hospital for almost 6 weeks now with Rowan is that the world around you doesn't wait until your son is better. It keeps moving and leaves you behind.