Wednesday, February 22, 2006

A Map, sort of


This is from this afternoon. I don't know if you can tell, but the swelling is slightly less, and his color is a tiny bit better.

What you can see more clearly is the 3 chest tubes (the red ones) and the peritonaeal drain tube (at the top of the screen, right hand cornerish, white thingy coming out of a white square bandage - the tube looks sort of green, there near those red/blue dots.) The blue tube at the top is his ventilator, which is in his mouth and down his throat. The other tube in his mouth is so that they can administer a drug directly into his stomach because it can't be given intravenously.

The black thing on his head monitors his temperature, the gold heart on his belly keeps track of his skin temp, and the bandage on his chest covers his incision. Earlier, it said "chest open" but now it's marked with the date and time it was last changed and the nurse's initials. Up top there is Dad's finger in Nova's hand - the red light is the monitor that keeps track of his oxygen levels - it's wrapped around his little finger.

The wires all go from different electrodes that monitor heart rate and blood pressures in different parts of his body - all attached to a load of monitors. The other tubes are all medicines that go into one or another of his IV's, it's a whole network of IV tubes going to 3 different sites, one in his right arm, one in his femoral artery (right groin area) and one in his femoral vein (left groin area) That pink doohicky is the part of his ventilator that allows them to drain any mucus from his lungs...

Any questions? ;) Lots of stuff... And I didn't even get a picture of all the contraptions that are pumping the meds into him, or any of the monitors (there's lots of them too) and I figured we could all pass on the various collection units for chest drainage, urine output, peritonaeal drainage etc...

9 comments:

  1. Things seem to be going in the ideal direction, relatively speaking that is. He looks good. You and dad need a lot of rest I'm sure. Sleep. Dream peaceful dreams, my friend, and you too, my new little friend. Maybe there is a God. I loved to meet him. But you know what, in a sense, I just did, through glossy eyes.

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  2. Amen, amen, amen, Sir James!

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  3. I just checked back this morning. Glad he made it and is doing so well! Get some rest.

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  4. Anonymous10:04 AM

    Hugs, babygirl. Don't forget to try and take care of you also.

    magdala~

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  5. Thank you, all of you. He looks like hell in these post-op pics, but I'm just glad he's around to look like hell.

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  6. I just cant stop crying when I look at these pictures! HUGS Erin... give Nova kisses from Hawaii.

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  7. Wow, I still recoil at images of my father in CCU. To have even more contraptions attached to such a tiny body is unimaginable. At least they are keeping good track of him. I'm with you every step of the way, hon.

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  8. Oh E! He looks horrible in the most wonderful way possible! I hope that, as of this posting, things are still continuing to improve.

    Continuing prayers for the little warrior.

    P.S. I showed your site to the co-worker that originally had the bear, she was moved to tears and sends her best to you all.

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  9. Ang~
    Even the nurses love the bear and his history. Hospital rules actually forbid stuffed animals being IN the bassinet (well, this style of bassinet anyway, because of the heater in it) but they use Nova's bear to prop up his ventilator tube since I told them the story - so now that little bear is snuggled right up beside him a lot of times. I got a picture of him in the bed with him tonight, I'll upload it later.

    V~
    When we first went up and saw him this way, it was a shock, and really hard to see - sometimes it still is, but you'd be amazed at how quickly you 'adjust' to this "new normal" version... I suppose out of sheer relief that they've made it this far and are still around to look so bad.

    Eve~
    Sweety, don't cry about the pictures, I've done enough of that for all of us... besides, every one of those tubes and wires is there to save his tiny little life.

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