The Bain of our Existence - The Tube

Recovery - Day 11

3:45 PM Update - Blake's drainage is great today, since midnight last night, he has only drained 16 cc, but because his last drainage measurement before that was still high and the surgeons are super conservative they want to wait it out through the night, and if everything stays the same, they will remove the tube in the morning. They are going to try and get us released by 5 PM tomorrow night. So, not the news we were hoping for, but not terrible news either.

9:30 AM Update - Blake's drainage was down about 20 cc yesterday, but it was still more than they wanted to pull the tube. So the doctor's plan was to wait until tomorrow, schedule to pull the tube then, then watch for 24 hours and release us on Wednesday.

Fortunately, Blake has really stubborn parents. The magic number we are trying to get to for output is 50 cc for a 24-hour period. Since 6pm last night he has only put out 6 cc, so we asked them to consider a 6pm to 6pm period to evaluate and if we can stay low during that period to pull his tube tonight and evaluate overnight and release us tomorrow. They agreed and now we have a plan we are all on board with - they don't want us to be chest-tube hostages any more than we want to be.

So, here's where you come in. Please pray, take out your rabbit's feet, do a voodoo dance, anything you can. Blake needs an awesome day with minimal output! Thanks everyone!

Recovery - Day 10

Pooped from celebrating Mason's birthday at the hospital. No new news. Still draining, it's trending down, which is good. We are guessing we will get out on Tuesday.

Recovery - Day 9

Well, we are still here, still much of the same. Blake is still draining. It's slowing down, but very slowly. Tuesday is now the earliest we could get out of here. Blake's sats continue to go up (ranging between 96-98) and he continues to be in good spirits.

We thought the hospital was slow on a regular weekend, but on a holiday weekend it's practically vacant. We are stir crazy, to say the absolute minimum. We did convince the attending doc to let us wander off the 15th floor, so we went to go see the miniature train village which was a thrilling adventure.

Since there isn't much new news to report, I thought y'all might like a picture of our groundhog day:

5 am - morning meds and vitals
6 am - surgical rounds
7 am - visit from cardiologist resident
8 am - blood labs/X-ray
Walk the halls
Breakfast
9 am - 11 am - cardiology rounds
Walk the halls
Lunch
Afternoon follow up tests (usually requiring more blood)
1 pm - meds and vitals
Walk the halls
5 pm - meds and vitals
Dinner
Walk the halls
9 pm - meds and vitals
Bed
Rinse, wash, repeat

Recovery - Day 8

Good news is endocrinology is not concerned about Blake's blood sugars. Some tests they did yesterday came back negative and his A1C (which is a common blood test for diabetics) was great. It takes two weeks or so for the antibody tests to come back, so they will call us with those results - essentially the presence of these antibodies indicates Blake's risk for developing type 1 diabetes. But for now, this is a concern we are going to put aside.

Not so great news is Blake's tube is still draining like crazy. They are going to add another diuretic to his meds today to see if we can help move this drainage along.

He will get an echocardiogram today to look at his heart function post-op so that if he miraculously dries up over the holiday weekend, we can be discharged without having to wait for an echo.

Thanks for your continued thoughts and prayers, please keep praying that he dries out and that his new heart function is strong.