It took over 8 hours for Ethan to come out of the O.R. on Tuesday. When the surgeon came out, he said that Ethan's vitals were good throughout surgery and there was not a lot of blood lost (thus he did not require a transfusion). They added pins to his legs to pull him truly straight in the O.R. before starting the spinal correction. The last things to be removed were the leg pins and his crown of thorns. The holes were the crown was are now starting to heal over.
Ethan had good vitals and remained pretty well sedated and intubated so we went home on Tuesday to try and get a good night's rest. Overnight he started to have blood pressure issues and had to be put on additional medication to increase his blood pressure which is odd since he has so much fluid on board from the surgery and IVs that he is all puffy (and usually increases your blood pressure). Yesterday was a difficult day keeping him sedated enough not to try pulling out his breathing tube and also keep him comfortable with the pain meds. It was very hard to see him obviously in discomfort and not be able to help soothe him or make it better. It took until about 6:30 pm to finally get him settled a bit. They were able to wean off his blood pressure medication through the day, but overnight he ran into issues again and had to have them restarted.
Today he is more settled, but is still sleeping well due to the heavy sedations from yesterday. They are planning to change out his sedation medication as the one he is on can cause blood pressure issues. They have also discussed changing his pain medication.
Yesterday we had a chance to look at a before and after x-ray of his chest. The change is quite remarkable. Of course, there is still a curve, but no where near the degree it was. Looking at the before image it is no wonder he was starting to have more respiratory issues.
The hope had been to remove the breathing tube this afternoon, but at this stage I'm not sure that is still the goal for today. We will likely remain in critical care for another day. We had hoped to be up on the floor recovering by now...but I guess Ethan prefers the one-on-one care he gets here better. ;)
A great big thank you to everyone who has sent good wishes and kept him in their thoughts! We'll try to post photos when we can.
I've been thinking about you and Ethan this past week but haven't had a chance to comment (Can't do it from my phone for some reason!). I'm glad to read the surgery went well and that you've seen such dramatic changes. I hope he's continued to do well and his blood pressure went back to normal. It's such an awful feeling to not be able to comfort your child. :( Update when you can.
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