Finally a real walk

I apologize for not updating yesterday. There really wasn't a lot of changes or much to update. After getting the 3rd degree from Jason, I decided to update after rounds today. Gage had a rougher night the night before. They had tried a new pain medicine that made him really itchy. They gave him benadryl to help the itching, but I made them hold it off until bedtime. Unfortunately, it made him really wound up and grumpy instead of sleepy. He was up most of the night and finally at 3 A.M. refused to go back to sleep. He was quite tired yesterday and couldn't figure out why his eyes were sore and kept watering. I did allow him 2 naps, but still tried to keep him up as much as possible during the day. It seemed to work, he slept much better last night. He woke up when he was in pain or needed to pee, but would go right back to sleep.

So here is where he's at now, they have weaned him off his nitrous. This was given through his nose in a high flow nasal cannula and was used to support his right heart. They will watch him very close to make sure his right heart pressures don't increase off of the nitrous. They have his blood thinned to where they want it and will start him on oral Coumadin today. His 2 remaining chest tubes (the cause of all his pain )are still draining too much to be taken out. He will be a new man when those can finally come out. He is eating great and tolerating his feeds well. Yesterday he ate 1/2 of a personal pan pizza. That is more than he ate in 3 days before this device. He really is in a stable place and progressing well. PT came in this morning and walked him down the hall to the CVICU doors and back. That is a really good first walk for him. We will do a couple more before the day is over.

Jason and all the kids will come back Wednesday for Thanksgiving so we can all be together.

 My attempt at a selfie while we were walking. He gets to walk with Sandra who was one of Lindsey's favorite.

Smiling without his high flow nasal cannula.