Thursday, September 2, 2010

Hopefully, the third time is the charm! Caleb should be having surgery tomorrow to tack down the left side of his diaphragm. The decision was made in rounds this morning to go ahead, with no dissension. He was still off the ventilator when I got to the hospital this morning, but he was fighting mightily to breathe.

They wanted to drop the oxygen saturation in the CPAP, but Caleb did not agree. His blood oxygen saturations dropped into the 50% range for a while and they had to bump the levels back up. The decision was made to intubate him again and let him rest. They had done another chest x-ray and his left lung was pretty much collapsed. Because they would have had to intubate him tomorrow for the surgery, doing it today didn't cost us anything, will re-inflate his lung and gave Caleb a peaceful afternoon and evening.

The surgery will involve an incision in his side with some stitches placed in the left portion of his diaphragm to keep it in the position it would normally be in when he has taken a breath. The right side will be allowed to rise and fall normally. With the left side down, the right side should draw air into both lungs and allow him to oxygenate his blood. They don't have any real concerns about long term effects from the surgery. Because he was having such a tough time breathing, the surgery will not really cause us any lost time, only speed up his ability to get off respiratory support later.

He is still on breast milk and is still tolerating it well. The oozy spot on his sternum seems to be getting better. His heart is working well. He is still struggling to pee consistently, but they are working on that.

Another big day tomorrow, but hopefully this will be his last surgery this time around!