Backing the ship up just a smidge.

It appears his lungs got out of the starting gates and didn't pace themselves too well.  By this morning he was back on CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure).  He just had to work too hard to keep his lungs expanded and so they were filling with fluid again.  The other reason is that, more than likely, his LV is still stiff from surgery and is not as efficient as it should be to compensate for the weaker lungs. 
To help this, they have changed his medications again.  They put him back on Milrinone to help his heart relax and he's on Lasix drip again as well as diurael to try and get those lungs dried up.  So far so good.  The pee is flowing just fine.  He is getting Ativan every 6 hours which seems to be just about right.  They d/c'd the Morphine and maintained his Tylenol.  But later this afternoon, his blood pressure had gone up, so they decided to give him some Methadone to see if that might help, and it did. 
They also had the first post op echo done.  I won't lie.  I'm worried about that.  Trying not to let worry consume me, but sometimes that is easier said than done.  We still don't know the results of that.
So today we got him sitting up in a chair for 3 hours.  This is an important part of his recovery, so that was good.  AND he got to get out of that stinkin' bed! 
It is disappointing to take steps back, but we are confident the doctors can adapt and overcome these hurdles.  The more difficult thing for me to deal with right now is that he is so sad.  Poor little punkin has every reason to be sad, but I have so much less control over the emotional side of things.  He is so sweet most of the time and tries to talk, but the darn CPAP blows through his mouth every time he opens it to talk.  He has managed to say he is thirsty and to ask when he gets to stop doing the CPAP thing.  So frustrating that we can't give him a good answer.  We will have child life come by tomorrow and see how they can help him. 
That is pretty much all about today.  We are waiting to see how the echo and xray look and hopefully they will bring encouragement.

On another note, we have been here for 8 days now, and I thought I'd share a few random things I have learned about Packard. 
In no particular order:
1. Where you sit when not in the room is entirely based on proximity to outlets.  I guess, technically we are not supposed to plug our phones in while in the rooms.  So we have been on a search for a comfortable, quiet sitting area with outlets.  We have finally settled on one up on 3.  It fulfills all the criteria.  It also has sunshine.  Bonus.
2. There are several foods I will be very sad to leave behind:
           Fruit and Granola Yogurt Parfait.
           Turkey and Cheese Panini
           BLTA...with pesto.  Always with pesto.
           Mrs. Fields chocolate chip cookies. 
           Fruit infused water.  Seriously.  Whoever invented this is brialliant.
           Oatmeal with brown sugar and raisins
           Italiano Panini from Tootsies (across the street) Delicious and the fries are unreal.
3. CVICU is freezing 98.7% of the time.  So I wear layer upon layer.  Then it is 89 degrees outside and I am roasting.  3rd floor is also really warm. 
4. The little fountain courtyard in the middle of the hospital is my happy place, for sure. 

 

The benches provide a lovely place for a warm nap.  No lie. 

5. Speaking of naps....people sleep everywhere.  I've seen people sprawled across every surface, from floors to couches to chairs to, ahem, wooden benches in the courtyard.  It's all fair game. 

6. Danny Herrera is hereby nominated for Security Guard of the Year for going above and beyond the call of duty and searching high and low (in garbage cans) for our lost belongings.  If it weren't for him doing that crazy thing, the nurse who had found our items would not have told him we were looking for them.  He's a good guy, that Danny.  He wins.

7. Don't put things down.  You probably will forget to pick them back up again when you are working from a place of stress and low sleep.

 

I'm sure I'll come up with more randomness to share.   Not that most of you really care, I'm sure, but oh well.