Post-op Day #12

The past few days have been exciting…maybe not awesome, but exciting.  Even though his diaphragm is paralyzed again; they went ahead and extubated Devin this past Friday.  This is an effort to see if his lungs are strong enough to push that diaphragm down and breathe on his own.  So, he is now off of the ventilator, and on high flow C-PAP to help support his breathing.  His x-ray still looks pretty rough, and not as clear as they would like; but they just want to see if he is strong enough to get through this on his own (like he did last time) without having the additional surgery.

 
Thursday, Friday, and early Saturday Devin was extremely agitated and it was pretty difficult getting him comfortable, which took about 5 of us to get him calm.  Whenever he would throw a fit his oxygen saturations would drop and his heart rate would go up. Which was really not helping his lungs heal when all his energy was going at getting angry.  So, the past 3 days have provided MUCH needed rest for our little man.  He seems to have built up a tolerance to some of the medication that was helping him stay calm, so it’s taken quite a while for him to find his happy place again.  He seems to finally be doing better now, and it’s comforting to know he is able to sleep longer than the 10 minute stretches like he had been doing.

This weekend Dan & I were able to both be home a day with the boys, which was the first time in 8 days.  It was nice to spend some time together as a family, although it felt very strange not having Devin there as well.  We got to go to Gabriel’s first flag football game, and just feel kind of “normal”.  Sitting in a hospital day after day does strange things to your psyche, so it was nice to be reminded the world is still turning outside.

So, now we are just in a holding pattern, still watching numbers on a screen to let us know if he can handle the load on his lungs. Today I was able to really hold him for the first time since his surgery 12 days ago! It took a team of people to lift him, move wires, tubes and cords, and make sure his cardiac line (scary) stays where it needs to be!

We would still covet your prayers over Devin.  At this point we have no idea how long we will be in the hospital.  After his last surgery we were here about a month after he was extubated waiting for his lungs to strengthen.  And while I have no doubt Devin can do that again; I think some days we’re not sure if WE can get through being here a month again.  We miss all being home as a family.  It was obvious this weekend as we were leaving; it was a little harder on the boys too.  We had told them it wouldn’t be as long of a hospital stay for Devin as it was the first time, but it has turned into being much longer than we all expected with all of the bumps we have been met with.

I’m trying to think of a clever little closing paragraph here, but my brain is just exhausted from this pace.  I do want to thank all those who have been praying, taken a moment to send a card, or a meal, or watch our kids on a moment’s notice.  You all have helped to take a burden off our shoulders, and have sent just the right words to help mend our souls a bit.  So thank you for your faithfulness, it has been a blessing we can’t repay!