Day 3

We are more than 48 hours post-op now.  Davis had a good night last night.  He was given some medicine for agitation and slept peacefully through the night.  He was taken off some medicine that was helping keep his blood pressure up and did great for several hours!  However, this morning his blood pressure dropped again; also, his urine output wasn't ideal and his creatinine level was up.  This means his kidneys are having some trouble, which can happen after being on bypass.

Davis's medicines

He was put back on the medicine to keep up his blood pressure which will in turn supply more blood to the kidneys.  The kidneys need this blood to help get rid of the fluid build-up in his little body.  He is on two medicines now which also help to push out this fluid.  He is very puffy, and we are ready to see that swelling go down.  He has started to produce more urine in the last couple of hours, and this is good news - we need that to continue throughout the day.  We can't begin to wean him off the ventilator until he gets rid of some of this fluid, because his lungs and heart will need more of his energy when off the ventilator, and we currently need all his energy to go toward keeping up his blood pressure and pushing out fluids.

All the machinery

Davis goes through periods in which he is awake, but he is not fully aware even during his wakeful times.  He responds to touch and the sound of my voice and occasionally opens his eyes a little.  He needs his pain meds and medication to keep him calm in order to keep him restful as much as possible, but because he is off the paralytic, he does move around some.  He is keeping his temperature down on his own (still low grade fever) and his heart rate is steadying at an ideal pace.

As long as he keeps up the urine output and the blood pressure, he may start weaning off the ventilator through the night and tomorrow unless another issue appears.  His surgeon feels he has turned a corner, but there are still lots of critical issues and concerns.  We want him off the ventilator as soon as possible, not only to see how he does on his own but for his comfort during his awake periods.  Plus once he is off the ventilator, I imagine he will be able to start eating some.

Living in the PICU day after day watching your baby suffer and not being able to help him is not a pleasant experience.  We were expecting a quicker recovery due to his absence of risk factors, but his complications are nothing too far out of the norm for this type of surgery and so far very treatable.  We have to be patient and wait for his little body to heal itself.  We are not moping around, focusing on the difficulty of the situation, though we are saddened when he has a setback.  We have been able to keep our positivity and strength, which we are able to do since we have each other, our family, and our friends who are helping us through it; and we still have our sweet baby with us.

Sweet baby boy.  :(

Davis has a long road of recovery ahead of him.  I daydream of holding him, rocking him, feeding him, playing with him, and, probably most of all, seeing him smile.  He is such a sweetheart and such a trooper.  The nurses think he is so cute and sweet. ;) And they don't even know the real Davis!

Davis will be in the PCICU for a few more days.  His daytime nurse he has had the last three days is off for the next four, and we've been joking that we hope we don't see her again.  Hopefully by that time we will be moved to the regular pediatric floor.  Not only will this mean that Davis is much better, but the accommodations for me and Matt will be much more comfortable.

I know Davis has a lot of fans and followers, and I will continue to update daily and/or when anything major changes.