Day 2 part 2...Tuckers stubborn shenanigans!

Good news is his heart looks really good.


This is where the shenanigans come.  You want a strong kid, but not too stong, or you pull out your IV lines.  UGH!

Around 2am, They started to wean his dose of pain medication down.  By 2:15am, they had to pull his breathing tube as he had started to breath on his own. so out it came. There is a fine line with sedation, they want to give him enough to keep him down and settled, but not enough where it effects his breathing.  They pushed all the medication that they could for the first three hours, morphine x3, ketamine x2 gave him Tylenol suppositories as he is still NPO and then talked of Benadryl maybe helping.  The decision was made to give him a higher dose of a drug that begins with a "c", which was suppose to work within 30 mins.  All while we (one respiratory Therapist, one RN, the charge RN and I) restrained him to the bed so he wouldn't pull something out.  He was screaming "no more boo boo's" and "baba". It was awful!!  Yup, not one not two but five hours of that painful screaming.  Gary and I took turns, which is exactly why we choose to stay here while we are in the CICU, its too much for just one parent to handle.  It really almost breaks you when you have to hold your child down when they are in pain. 


Around 8:30am Tucker had slept for about an hour, then he woke up again thrusting his back.  He was screaming, they gave him a little sedation, and pulled his peripheral line out of his right hand.  he kept hitting everything in his path with his arm and they were worried that the would pull it out on his own. 


Fingers crossed that he gets to rest for a while.

Mommy did rounds with the unit this morning, where they discuss everything with the entire floor team, anesthesia, respiratory, a cardiac surgeon, our RN, and a bunch of other people who take a lot of notes on notepads and computers. They stated that due to his experience with previous surgeries in the past and all his cardiac catheterizations, he is going to have a higher pain tolerance to medications than the average toddler.

Our NP friend, AnnMarie, stopped by before she got busy today.  She has followed Tucker since his birth and has been such a good friend to mommy.  We just LOVE her to pieces. 

Dr. Emani came by, Tucker's platelets are very low, which is normal, so he will be receiving plasma this morning to try and elevate them.  If he tolerates them well,   he will be able to eat and drink something other than apple juice. 

Plan for this afternoon is to get him up and moving a little more but to make him as comfortable in that movement so he does not get agitated for that long again.