Out of Critical Care...

It has been a long journey but Ethan is now out of critical care and up on the regular floor for the remainder of his recovery. He was technically well enough to go up earlier but there were no beds available.

Last Friday, Ethan returned to the O.R. to complete the surgery started on Tuesday. It took them longer then anticipated (4 hours), but they felt they were able to get a decent correction with the new spinal rods. His blood pressure and other stats remained stable during surgery. After surgery he returned to the critical care unit for recovery. While there, he had to start the low blood pressure medication again (which seems to be what happens to him when he gets out of spinal surgeries), he required more blood products and they gave him some calcium and potassium supplements by I.V.

When he came out of the first surgery, he had three I.V. sites and over the course of last week, two of them have been removed. They were able to extubate him (remove the breathing tube) on Wednesday and he has been on room air since yesterday. They were also able to remove his catheter on Wednesday and he has been going well on his own.

During the two surgeries and while he was having troubles with low blood pressure they were giving him lots of fluids to try and bring up his blood pressure/keep him well hydrated. Unfortunately, much of the fluid ended up third spacing (which means that it was collecting under his skin instead of flowing through his veins and then out with his urine) and this made him super puffy! (Anyone who has had water retention during pregnancy knows what this looks and feels like!) He was swollen from head to toe. I was surprised by how heavy it made him! It was hard to move his limbs and it felt really weird when you touched his skin. It took a long time, but he seems to be pretty much back to his normal (slightly too skinny state) as of today. It is weird, we were so used to his usual size that when he got so puffy it really concerned us and now that he is back to his usual size, I'd like to see just a bit of that weight back on so his ribs and other bones don't protrude so much.

You can see how puffy he is in this photo, especially in his arm, chest and eyes. This was taken after his first surgery. The scars on his eye are due to the tape they used to keep his eyes shut during surgery. He has been super sensitive to tapes lately. They used a different technique for the surgery on Friday which was much gentler on his skin.

When compared to Clayton's hand, you can see how puffy his hand was earlier this week.

 



Now he just has to finish his antibiotics and tolerate sitting in his wheelchair and then he can come home. :)

Thank you for all the good thoughts that were sent over the past 11 days, they are greatly appreciated!