Andrew had a great night/morning, a rough afternoon, and then a nice early evening. He's been laying on his stomach for the last few days, and they were concerned that his stomach tube was pressing on his abdomen and causing soreness. They flipped him onto his back this morning....he responded very well and was behaving well for the nurses. In the early afternoon, he started working harder to breathe, his oxygen saturation dropped, and his CO2 sensor started to spike. A blood test confirmed that his CO2 was very high, though he wasn't showing any outward signs of being upset. They turned up the pressure and rate on his ventilator and gave him an extra breathing treatment and he recovered, but it's a bit concerning that he had such a reaction for no known reason. A chest x-ray showed no major anatomical changes, so it wasn't a hyperinflation problem with his left lung....it could be an issue with his right bronchus, or simply airway spasms.
After that, he behaved very well. He was awake and happy when we got there, his follow-up gases were all normal, and he's been good ever since. His ventilator settings are back to where they were this morning, his oxygen is back at 30%, and he hasn't given a repeat performance. We had another nice visit with him, then left him sleeping peacefully. I'll post some pictures when I have a chance.
About Me
- JR
- D's husband. Andrew's dad. Son, friend, cousin, nephew, grandson....the list goes on.
About This Blog
This blog was originally created to disseminate information about Andrew, our son who was born on June 15, 2007. Andrew was born with a congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH) that allowed abdominal organs (stomach, intestines, etc) to migrate into his chest cavity during development. This prohibited normal lung growth, making it difficult for him to live without significant life support, including a ventilator, a lung bypass machine called ECMO, and a long list of medications.
Andrew spent the next five months at Rady Children's Hospital in San Diego, undergoing multiple operations for the hernia repair, intestinal rearrangement, stomach tube insertion, etc. Multiple attempts to help him breathe on his own without a ventilator were unsuccessful due to a number of anatomical and developmental difficulties. Andrew's failure to progress and an abundance of overwhelmingly unfavorable test results led us to remove him from life support and let nature take its course on November 19, 2007.
We greatly appreciate the time we were able to spend with Andrew, and this blog continues as a source for information, a tribute to his memory, and a continuation of our lives without him present. From the emotional to the mundane, our lives have been forever changed by his presence; those lives are now chronicled here.
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