Busy Day

One might wonder: how can a person who is in a deep slumber have a busy day?

You begin with a team of doctors reviewing your history to plot the day, a videoscope of the inside of your lungs to check for additional bleeding, multiple IV bags hanging with eleven drugs ready to administer, and (just when the medical team was ready for a quick break) an order to add a new IV port with three additional lines in your neck for medicines to be added at a moment's notice. Now he has a total of six. Drew had a busy day, and never opened his eyes.

One might also think hanging out in the ICU would be boring. We were prepared for an endless day of staring at a sleeping son while sitting in uncomfortable chairs. But it is no koala bear nap - the speed with which everything happens is impressive. The sounds of the machines becomes a game as we try to figure which machine is causing the current alarm. Someone is always checking something, with some new thought about what the next course of action will be. Today we battled very low blood pressure, so you sit to the side of the bed, observe and pick your times to ask one of your million questions.

The staff has been very patient with the patient's parents. We want to know all that goes into those six plus lines and what each of the 35 numbers (honest - 35 numbers, each with its own unique alarm) have to do with our son's health. We now can smile knowingly when the doctors say they are pleased with his PEEP (positive end expiratory pressure - a lung measurement). You were probably thinking something else?!

The visit from the transplant team was positive. Drew continues to make more white blood cells and show strong signs of grafting well. There doesn't seem to be an answer to why his lungs have reacted in this manner - just the response that "we often see this in transplant patients". So with more white bloods cells growing each day, his PEEP improving, %oxygen staying below 45%, kidneys working, a strong heart rhythm and blood pressure stable - Drew is a little closer to completing this critical part of the game.

The orginial plan was to be in ICU for a day or two - doctors said they would chat about it late in the week so we are guessing it will be four or five days. Progress is slow but continues to be encouraging. Day 20 was full of new experiences, so we are glad Drew will have no memory of it - expecially when he finds out he was fed Ensure through a tube while wearing a gown.