Three weeks old!!

Gibson had a great birthday present today, the NJ tube went in! He started feeds today at 2pm and every three hours they'll continue to feed.  They'll slowly up the doses as his digestive tract starts to work properly.  He is handling the feeding well right now, little gagging but nothing has come back up yet.  All good things!

They gave Gibson a blood transfusion today.  Sadly they had to give him another IV too. They found a vein at the bottom of his left foot above his toes, it almost looks like a 6^th toe. His hematocrit count was a little low, which is why they needed do to a blood transfusion. Usually they would just wait for the body to take over and start making it, but where he is still very sick they want to keep the count higher than most.  He is also having very heavy secretions coming out of his lung into the breathing tube.  They have sent a sample of this to the lab to get a culture. It’ll still take a few days but there is a lot of bacteria and white blood cells in the sample they sent.  They are treating him with more antibiotics to prevent any sickness from reaching him.  This is always a concern when you are intubated for long periods of time, and he can’t afford something reaching his lungs.  He still looks very healthy and isn’t showing any other signs, but they are taking every precaution to prevent this from turning into something.

Gibson’s CO2 levels have been getting too high over the last 24 hours, and he was breathing really hard trying to ventilate his body of the carbon. He shouldn't have to work that hard while on the ventilator. It should be doing most the work for him.  Doctors were worried that the added pressure from the fluid and air in his chest cavity might be preventing him from ventilating and causing him to work harder than needed.  When they did the x-ray they learned that this theory was true and also that the left lung had a very small hole in it.  The hole was caused from the ventilator settings being too high for the left lung but perfect for the right side (a very fine balance the doctors are always working on).  This will heal itself but they had to put a small chest tube in through his left side between a couple ribs to drain out some of the air and fluid. It will give the left lung some extra room to expand and help Gibson out.  Where he doesn’t have much lung in the left side of his chest, the body will want to fill that space so it fills with fluid. It’s a normal, natural thing to happen in an empty space. The body wants it to be filled and protected. Gibson did awesome through the surgery and is feeling much better.  His CO2 levels came down instantly and are within range of where they need to be.  His breathing is much calmer and he looked very relaxed when we left.  We were worried about having to put a tube into his chest to keep it drained, sounds scary! Seeing Gibson after made us very relaxed and happy that they did it.  He never ceases to amaze us!