Today was a pretty good day for Dominic. Everything regarding the actual surgery - the incision, the drain, and the swelling are great. He hasn't had any issues. What he is having issues with are random things that can accompany major surgery. We found out from his blood tests yesterday that he has extremely low albumin levels. They think this is because he hasn't been eating or drinking much over the past few days. It's normal right after surgery to not have an appetite, but we're going on day 7 and it's affecting his body. His right hand and leg/foot have been really puffy and initially they thought it was just excess fluids, but now they know it's lack of nutrition. There is a part of me that feels like I'm not doing my job very well, but no matter how much I pump, he just hasn't wanted to eat. So, they are starting him on a high calorie formula that they want to be his primary source of nutrients. They also gave him three vials of Albumin intravenously tonight and already the puffiness has gone down. This might be the beginning of the end of nursing for me. I guess it all depends on how long we're in here, but he's having a hard time nursing and gets mostly bottles. We'll see...
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| Getting his dressings changed |
Another issue he's having is constipation. He hasn't pooped since last Monday and he's been working on one for the past two days. Despite our efforts with stool softeners and two suppositories, he hasn't gone yet. He is very uncomfortable, he sits or lays all day trying to push. But imagine the pressure you would feel if you were trying to push really hard with 36 stitches in your head and cerebral spinal fluid draining out of a hole in your skull. Poor kid. I never thought his biggest issue after major brain surgery would be pooping. But, here we are.
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| He's working on one |
Dominic has also developed a sore on the back of his neck. It appears it started as a bruise from the way his head was laying and clamped during surgery. But since they've had him in bed resting on one side (since the side has all the stitches) it has been rubbing and is now an open sore. They keep putting Bacitracin and new dressings on it. But now we have to shift his head so he's laying on his stitches to give the bruise/sore time to heal. Sounds like a lose-lose situation to me.
Despite a few issues, Dominic still continues to get better. I don't think he's quite where we thought he'd be yet. I have a feeling we won't be going home until closer to the end of the week. But that's fine, I really don't want to go home if there are still a few concerns. They did change the setting on the EVD today so they are hoping to see his body start to drain and absorb the cerebral spinal fluid on it's own. He'll give it a couple days and then take it out altogether and then watch him for a couple more days.
We had some more visitors today, but stupid me, I forgot to take pictures. But we had our friends Scott and Lindsay Schultz come this morning and kindly brought us breakfast and coffee. Next, my good friend Jenna dropped in with lunch and visited for awhile. Then came Mamma and Bampa for their daily visit and then Dominic's Uncle Steve came with cousins Nathan and Megan. Busy day! But it's great, it makes the time pass.
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| He loves his new lion |
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| He just lays there and holds him |
I decided to leave for a few hours to go visit Mitchell. I've only seen him for a few hours this entire last week, so I was looking forward to some quality time outside the hospital. I did not turn out the way I thought it would. He is staying with Mike's sister and her family and according to them, he is doing great and is very well behaved. The only way I can descibe his actions and demeanor towards me tonight was 'mean'. He did not want to give me a hug, he didn't want to sit on my lap and he talked back to me like he never has before. I'm realizing how difficult this whole thing has to be on Mitchell. Sometimes I forget how it must affect him because he has so easily bounced around over the past 8 months and never complained. But he's older now and I can tell he has this anger and frustration inside him and he probably doesn't even know why. I'm sure there are some feelings of abandonment because he never knows where he'll be from day to day. Not gonna lie, it broke my heart. I feel responsible and terrible that I didn't really consider how hard this would be for him. At one point during dinner when he started throwing a fit, I took him in the other room and told him he had two choices: eat dinner and get ice cream or get down and ready for bed. He looked at me right in the eyes and said "No, I want to go home! I want to go home! To my house!" I thought I was going to lose it.
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| Mitchell and cousin Mady having a tea party |
Bed sore. Our daughter was a tummy sleeper. Two days post surgery she was so grumpy and restless...even with the narcotics. I knew she wasn't sleeping well do to the fact she was constantly on her back. (Reminder that she had open heart surgery.). I mentioned to the surgeon that her grumpiness may be from a lack of sound sleep and he said to go ahead and flip her. I was shocked and couldn't imagine be placed on my tummy after it had been cut and clamped open! He shrugged and said "she'll let us know.". I had the nurse flip her because I honestly didn't know where to touch her to do so. She was flipped, screamed in pain for a few seconds, found her thumb and fell asleep for four hrs. The longest stretch since post surgery. The surgeon grinned and moved on.
ReplyDeleteThe first touch, hold, flip is the hardest. It will get better!
The poop. That's a tough one poor guy.
Mitchell, just remind him how much you love him and miss him. He is probably mad at Mom, Dad, & Dominic. But it will get better. Really hard right now.
Don't rush going home. We did end up going back in the hospital for four more days due to a rare post surgery heart complication. I know your heart is set on going home, as it should be, just be prepared for any delays. I wasn't and just made things harder for myself.
You are all doing fabulous!