Vandy 6/26-6/29

Tuesday:
Will didn't fully wake up until almost the afternoon. He had so much anesthesia Monday that it took him a while to sleep it off. Overnight was pretty uneventful. Fevers continued as expected; they weren't going away immediately. His pain was being controlled with morphine.

Will says, "What in the world happened to me?"

Realizing that we weren't leaving the hospital for a while, JT and I decided to go home and pack some more stuff because we were out of clothes. Gram and Gramps came to sit with him while we were gone. We got home, washed 1 load of clothes that we absolutely needed, took showers, and repacked. I called to check in and Gramps said that Will had vomited a bunch of green stuff. Will has NEVER thrown up. This must have scared him to death. We couldn't leave right away because we we're waiting on clothes to dry. It was so frustrating that the one time we leave together for a long amount of time (and it was only about 2 hours) something bad happens. We finally got back to hospital and Will was looking pretty comfy in Gram's lap. He obviously felt better after getting that stuff out of him. The residents showed up not long after we did. The nurse had paged them when Will got sick. Gram was trying to explain the color and quantity to them, but Will didn't think they were getting the picture, so he chose to demonstrate again for them. It was so much and such a horrible color! The residents said it was a product of an empty stomach (he hadn't eaten in several days), pain meds, and anesthesia. The nurse gave him some nausea medicine and we were just going to watch him. He seemed to feel better again after he was sick. An x-ray was done that night to make sure the was no bowel obstruction (seriously, bowel obstruction even being considered is just a horrible thought).

Wednesday:
Vomiting happened again at midnight and about 7:30 in the morning. The x-ray showed that his intestines were essentially asleep. Congrats Will - you just earned yourself a NG tube! This tube goes through the nose down to the stomach and can be used for suction or to give tube feedings. We were using it for suction in this case. It was recommended that we leave the room for the placement, so we did, and walked far enough away to not hear the screaming. Dr. Thomas said he actually did pretty well with it and he seemed to have instant relief as soon as it was placed.

It wasn't very easy to hold Will at this point. He had so many tubes attached to machines and the wall that it was nearly impossible to get him situated. We stayed like this most of Wednesday morning. 

JT went to the auction this morning and Gram came to stay with me. We just hung out in the recliner all morning taking turns holding him. With the tube in place, he still couldn't eat or drink. Because it had been so long since Will had anything to eat or drink, we began discussing a PICC line with the doctors. This is a more permanent IV that would be a way to give nutrition through the veins since his gut wasn't working. It would involve another sedation. How could we avoid this? Will's intestines had to wake-up, so we were waiting for him to pass gas. So we waited, and waited, and waited. Nothing!
Our good progress for today, no fever in past 24 hours. Yippee!

Thursday:
No fevers overnight. We did another x-ray that showed some improvement in intestines, but not significant enough. We were scheduling PICC line for 1:30. We signed the consent form around 11:00 and then Will and I were chilling out in the recliner. I felt some rumbling and sure enough he had a dirty diaper. Yay! Never in my life did I think I would be excited about a dirty diaper, or be posting about it! The nurse paged Dr. Thomas and he came up to the room as excited as we were. Now the dilemma...get the PICC or assume we are good to go and skip the PICC and possibly wait another couple of days for nutrition for Will if this was just a fluke? Our choice was no PICC unless we absolutely had to. We didn't need it for IV antibiotics because we could go home on oral antibiotics. Dr. Thomas felt like Will could improve on his own so we cancelled the PICC. Fingers crossed that we made the right decision! Will is in control now.
Pops and Nonna finally got here this afternoon. Will had been pretty fussy today. He was really acting hungry but we couldn't feed him yet. He sneezed and his NG tube came out a little bit. The nurse came to tape it back which required us to hold him down. This time Will decided he wasn't going down without a fight. I was on the verge of a breakdown anyway, and I just couldn't hold him down for torture anymore. Luckily sweet Lauren showed up right then and we escaped downstairs to cry, laugh, and just get away for a minute
Dr. Thomas came by this evening and decided to get the tube out so we could try to get him to eat on his own. That all went smoothly (tube was out in just a second). Will ate a few ice chips. Yay! 

Friday: 
Restless night. Will can't seem to get comfortable or maybe he is just starving and having hunger pains. I hate giving him narcotics, but I don't want him to be in pain either, so I usually give in to the pain meds. 
Today's goal is to feed Will! He refused water this morning as always, wouldn't eat jello, but ate one or two ice chips. Then he was done; back to refusal. JT got him a Popsicle and crushed it up. Will ate half of it. Yay, finally progress! 
Pops and Nonna came back by before they headed back to Chattanooga. NeeNee came by and we walked around the hospital for a bit. Will was too tired to pay attention to much so we came back to the room and he went to sleep. Gram and Gramps came by and Will became playful. JT and I left hoping he may eat for them, but no luck. Then a stroke of brilliance (from someone other than me of course), try an actual bottle, not sippy cup. Will hasn't used a bottle in over a month, but he of course couldn't get it fast enough. Can't wait to break him of this habit again! But honestly, I don't care what it takes, I am just glad that we are eating and drinking. He has had some Cheerios and piece of banana too. I think it is safe to say that we are on the mend! Possible discharge Sunday or Monday is all continues to go well!