"Critically Stable"

This morning started off well enough. The doctors are all finally on the same page about needing to do the surgery sooner than later (still not going to happen until Wednesday, though - 3 day weekend an all), the nurses gave me a hard time about not even trying to go to work - what a pessimist I was being, and Mason seemed to be tolerating a wean in his settings. I was really hoping to write a blog tonight announcing that we had an entire day without incident, but no such luck.

We had most of a day without incident, but Mason decided that that would be too boring, so he's got GI issues to deal with. Unfortunately, Mason's belly is getting bigger and bigger despite not eating. He seems to have some sort of blockage that is perhaps causing him some pain. His heart rate has been up, his blood pressure has been up, and he seems to be more fidgety tonight. So, we've started another treatment - GoLytely (also known as "colon blow" in the movies). We are hoping to help his bowels get moving so that he does not continue to have pain from a bloated/distended stomach. Mason had a similar problem after his g-tube surgery in Dec. 2008, but was able to overcome it with reduction in his pain medication. Unfortunately, he cannot get rid of his pain medication and cannot get rid of the sedatives or paralytic so, his little body cannot move things through. We are very hopeful that this treatment will work so that his belly can go back to normal size and Mason can resume becoming stable.

In terms of his breathing and his heart, he has somewhat tolerated weaning down the nitric oxide (now at about 5) and his oxygen (has ranged from 60% to 100% oxygen mixed with air at different points during the day). It seems that he hasn't needed as much support as the vent was giving him, but still needs quite a bit of support. We are hopeful that when his belly gets a little less distended, his breathing, heart rate, and blood pressure will go back to baseline and he can continue to be "critically stable" until his surgery (thanks to our nurse tonight for that phrase!).