Great new: the breathing tube is out! It was removed around lunchtime today. Christopher struggled a bit for the first hour or so, but they gave him some medication to help reduce the swelling in his airway (the tube is quite irritating) and he has settled down nicely. He’s having a very peaceful nap as I write this.
His cry is still pretty quiet but we think (and so does the ICU doctor), that his voice sounds normal enough to say that his vocal cords are working properly. You might remember from his previous surgery that the nerve controlling his left vocal cord wraps around the arch of the aorta and is therefore at risk of being injured when they operate on the aorta. The surgeon actually told us after his second surgery that he felt it was fairly likely that the nerve would have some damage, because there was a fair bit of scarring in that area from the first surgery so they really had to work to free up the structures. So, we had mentally prepared ourselves for permanent vocal cord damage. We can’t say for sure yet, but it sounds like Christopher may well have beat the odds on that one.
His blood pressure remains elevated, and definitely popped up once they took the tube out. They are controlling it with medication through his IV though, and at the moment it’s pretty good. He is obviously having some pain, and is hungry (he isn’t currently getting anything through the feeding tube, which is a routine precaution when they take out the breathing tube, to minimize the risk of food ending up in the airway if he has to have the breathing tube put back in.) Pain and hunger are making him pretty cranky, and when he cries, his blood pressure goes up. Our nurse has been really working on getting his pain controlled this afternoon and at the moment, he looks comfortable.
The plan is for him to start getting some breastmilk through his feeding tube this evening, if all goes well.
One more bit of good news: he had an ultrasound of his head today, to be sure that his brain did not suffer any ill effects from the "episode" he had after surgery. The wonderful news is that his brain looks exactly the same as it did before surgery. Hooray!
Here are a couple photos of him, taken this afternoon:
A little dopey.
Snoozing peacefully.
And a bonus, a picture of Katie at her first night of "Dad and Me" soccer last night:
So glad that he got the breathing tube out and that the ultasound results were so good. He is an amazing little boy and an inspiration to us all. Keep up the good work Christopher, we are all praying for you and we want to see you home as soon as possible. Love to you all, Joyce and Kayleigh
Posted by: Joyce Speirs | 07/08/2011 at 09:37 PM
Keep it up. So glad to hear the ET tube was able to go so quickly. Keeping up the good thoughts and prayers.
Posted by: Farandolae | 07/08/2011 at 11:51 PM