Picu Day 4

Sorry, no picture today. He looks pretty much the same as he did yesterday, except his eye looks a little worse.

They kept him very sedated and pain free. I'm pretty sure that when he opened his eyes and looked at me, he was actually seeing the elephants on parade. The good news is he got a good rest which was much deserved. As one of our friends said..."even the strongest need a day off".

I forgot to mention that we got the results of his Echocardiogram back, and everything looks pretty good. The doctor called me yesterday and told us that we don't need to go back until the end of Summer. We also got the results of his hearing test on the day of surgery, and I forgot to tell you that his hearing has actually gotten worse. He had been hearing at about 60-65 db, and now he's hearing at 80-85 db. The good news is that this does not affect his hearing aid since the bone conduction bypasses his eardrum. The Audiologist thinks that there is still fluid in his ear which is affecting how well his eardrum moves. At our last ENT appointment, the doctor was aware of the fluid, but chose not to do anything about it for now. With this new piece of information his opinion may change.

The on-call ENT came to have a chat with us about Carter's airway. They do want to do a Bronchoscopy on Monday before they try to extubate again. The little guy had one done when he was in the NICU, but it seems as though his airway has changed since then so we think it's a good idea. A Bronchoscopy is a procedure where they stick a small camera down his airway to see what is going on in there. The plan is to take Carter into the OR on Monday and possibly place an ear tube, then do the Bronchoscopy, then extubate him to high flow Oxygen if everything on the Bronch looks good. I'm really glad that we are doing this because I feel like maybe we can find some answers to his breathing issues, but I'm also scared to death of what they might find. One of the positive things about this is that they were able to schedule it with Carter's ENT, and not somebody else. I'm so happy that we can have some continuity of care.

Until Monday, Carter will be enjoying his visit from the Candy Man. The house is way too quiet without the dribble of water from the Oxygen tank, and the beeping of his monitor.