Today was a long day and tomorrow has the potential to be even longer (starting with a conference call at 7am), so I'm going to keep this short. Andrew had a rough day due to a continuing fever and high heart rate, both of which are likely from an ongoing infection. When we arrived at the hospital he was okay, but he slowly deteriorated throughout the day. His pulse and blood pressure were continually high, and spiked every few minutes as he got more upset. He would sleep for a minute or two, then wake up and start squirming and fussing. At a couple points this grumpiness also translated into decreased oxygen saturation and high CO2 levels. The nurse took away all of his blankets and extra padding, put a cool, wet blanket under him, and draped a wet washcloth over his forehead. He got a couple extra doses of painkillers (Ativan and morphine) as well as some Motrin for the fever.
After a few emotional hours, he finally started to respond to the treatment. He fell asleep holding my hand for at least 45 minutes (his longest period of rest all day) and his heart rate and blood pressure came down to reasonable levels. He's done fine so far this evening, though they decided to let him rest and skip the sprints for tonight. He seemed much more comfortable when we left, and apparently continues to be more relaxed and less upset.
Even though Andrew is currently on four different antibiotics and has been seen by the Infectious Disease group twice in the last four days, he still doesn't seem to have a handle on the infection. These issues have been on-and-off for a week and a half, and we hope he'll respond better and go back to normal very soon. They took a new set of cultures to see if they can identify a new, un-caught bug in order to further refine his medication, but it may just be a matter of keeping him calm and happy while his body fights off the infection.
That's it for now....I've already written far more than I had planned. He's okay tonight and hopefully will be able to move forward in a healthier manner.
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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