Movin on Up!

Today was awesome! X-rays have shown that Gabe's lung is beginning to look normal and his O2 is staying within normal range for him. They still deep suction him and are performing respiratory therapy to help expand the lung. But he sounds and looks so much better.

They have cut back on his pain meds so he is much more alert and although he doesn't smile or talk (babble), you can tell he feels a little better.

They took out all but one of his chest tubes, so his discomfort has diminished by about 75%. From the way it looks, the last one will come out sometime tomorrow probably. They took out his arterial line and now all he has is a periferal IV.

With him not being so uncomfortable and not hooked up to too much, I had the opportunity to hold him today. (Yeah!)

So all in all, things are going really well. Jeff and I are euphoric! Oh and lastly: We have graduated to the 6th floor. We are one step closer to going home. Thanks be to God!!!!!

So today was not a good day for little Gaby. With such a big procedure as his Glenn operation, there are usually set-backs. Well- we learned that firsthand today.

The morning started out at around 3 am. Gabe woke up crying and in a lot of pain. At the time they hadn't quite figured out the right amount of pain medication for him. If they give him too much, it affects his breathing and too little, well...it's pretty obvious...

In a reaction to the pain, he ended up throwing up. Which, only made his pain worsen. After giving him enough pain meds, and sedating him a little, he rested. They took an xray of his chest and found that he had begun collecting fluid around his right lung. (Not in his lung, like pneumonia- but between his lung and chest cavity) They increased a diuretic to get him to increase his urine output and hopefully excrete the fluid buildup.

At around 2 this afternoon, Gabe's oxygen saturation levels dropped dramatically. For those of you that don't know, Gabe's O2 levels are normally lower than yours or mine simply because he has a heart condition. A normal and healthy individual should have O2 sat levels at 100%. Gabe normally runs at about 80-88% on a good day. They dropped suddenly to a deadly level of 29%. He was very, very blue. They bagged him with an oxygen mask and deep suctioned his chest. (He has a lot of congestion from the ventilator but no strength to cough up the phlegm). Once stablized, they put a heavy cannula called a vapotherm on his nose and now it blows warm oxygen in through his nasal passages. They suspected a calapse. They performed another set of x-rays.

The x-ray results showed a definite partial left lung calapse. The fluid buildup in his right lung had cleared up but now it was showing two air pockets.
They corrected the air pockets by increasing the chest tube suction. And now they are trying to correct the calapse. The cause of the calapse is simple and common with Glenn Procedures. Gabe's inability to cough and breath adequately has prevented him from expanding the lung to its full potential. The Vapotherm is currently helping to expand the lung. They will perform a follow up xray later tonite.

They have him resting comfortably right now. They have found a balance with his pain meds that seems to be working for him.

Obviously, our moving to the 6th floor is on hold for the moment!


Please pray for my little guy... he is amazing!

Gabe is doing wonderfully! He was taken off the ventilator late this afternoon and has not had any problems! They moved us to another pod but still within the PCICU (Pediatric Cardiac ICU). He now has to share a nurse with another patient. Although it is very nice to have your own nurse, this is a step in a more positive direction. He is doing so well! He has opened his eyes and looked at us several times. He holds a tough grip and took an ounce of pedialyte. As long as he keeps it down, we will be able to give him a bottle of good stuff (milk) in a little while. They are telling us that he may be moved to the 6th floor tomorrow. (One step closer to home!)



I hope everyone is safe and warm at home this evening. From what I hear it's a bad night to be out on the roads!



God Bless!

First and foremost, thank you to everyone for your prayers. Gabe is stable and on his road to recovery. God listens and there is no doubt that your praying is helping my little miracle boy.

Gabe's status: Our little fighter is doing well. We had a big scare last night. There was a very large amount of blood draining from his chest tubes. They tried suctioning out the excess blood, but it did not stop. They had to reopen his insicion and find the source of the bleeding. They did find it and managed to stop it but he lost a significant amount of blood. Once they stopped the bleed, they gave him a transfusion and he looks a lot better this morning.

This morning he is doing good. They have his pain under control and are currently trying to lower the amount of morphine so that they can wean him from the ventilator. He should be ventilator free by late morning. His chest tubes are draining well and hopefully will be out by tomorrow at the latest. He wakes from time to time and can hear our voices. He is so strong! Superman-is what my sister, Christina calls him!

I will continue to update you with his progress. Thank you again for the prayers!

Sorry for the delay everyone! We are waiting to see Gabe. Everything went well as far as his Glenn procedure is concerned. They did find that he has two more defects that they were not initially aware of. 1. He has a double left ventricle (two of the same thing) and 2. Polyspleenia (more than one spleen). They have not confirmed the multiple spleens yet. He will have to have an ultrasound to confirm this. They say that the double ventricle and multiple spleens come hand in hand. However, this does not alter Gabe's prognosis. They expect him to do well.

I am anxious to see my baby boy!

Update #2

Everything is going good so far. They are starting the bypass machine. The nurse said he is a trooper!

MY APOLOGIES TO EVERYONE!!!! I know I have neglected this blog, but to be honest I have just enjoyed being a mommy to my beautiful babies so much that I keep forgetting to post anything. Gabe keeps us busy! He is such a little flirt and LOVES the ladies!!

As most of you know, Gabe is currently having his Glenn Procedure as I type this blog post. We just received an update from the OR. They had a complication with getting his arterial lines in. His little veins make it hard. But they are in and the surgeon is now with him. So now it's a waiting game until the next update.

Please, please if you haven't already, pray for my little boy and for the doctors taking care of him. I will post another update as soon as we get one.