Day 2: Morning in PICU

Henry is doing great!  His hemoglobin # doubled after the blood transfusion last night.  The doctor now thinks that he probably would have been fine without it, but believed it was the right decision at the time.  Many other doctors who perform this surgery do a blood transfusion without question, so it’s very common.

He was running a mild fever after the transfusion, which is completely normal in babies, but of course we hope it goes down.

Matt stayed here all night and said Henry was a little fussy.  He got a little bit of Pedialyte this morning, then some formula, and then FINALLY some milk around 9 AM!  Little guy hadn’t had anything since 10PM on Monday, so I know he loved it!

When I got to the hospital at about 8:30 this morning, only one of Henry’s eyes was swollen shut, and he was awake and looking around with his other eye!  Matt said he could tell that Henry was excited to see me!

His breathing airways (excuse me, don’t know correct term- trachea?) are a little swollen from the oxygen, so he sounds really congested right now and his voice sounds a little weak, but he is definitely doing just fine!  He keeps trying to play with all the monitors that are attached to him... which means he pulls them off, which translates to a lot of beeping!  The little pulse measure that they put around his thumb has a light on it, and he keeps trying to stick it in his mouth!

So far they have taken out his breathing tube and one of his IVs.  As the day goes on they should be able to take off the catheter and some of the other IVs and monitors.  We will be moved out of PICU sometime this afternoon.

He gets pain meds every 2-4 hours, but only seems to really hate it when we move his head back and forth.  He seems to be in a little pain, and he does some minor grunting, but he’s not too bad.  He gets upset when we move his head back and forth.  We have to move it so that it doesn’t all swell up on only one side.  I’m assuming he will get fussier as his other eye swells shut and he can’t see us.

The nurse JUST came in and took his temperature and there was no fever at all, so that’s great.

Anyway, today will definitely be long, but we are thankful to be with our little guy!

(I wrote that first part earlier, and so I will go ahead and update again on this same post...)

It's about noon, and Henry's second eye is getting closer to swelling shut.  I think he probably has another hour or two with it open.  When he wakes up he is so sweet, but crying with a really pitiful voice... and letting out some tears with it.  I think he will do a lot better when we can hold him!

He also has some special toys to keep him company!