August 29, 2005
August 29, 2005 | Updates
Samuel had an OK night last night. He didn’t fall asleep until about 10 pm because his medications were given late. But he slept until about 3:30 am and then from about 5:30 am until about 9 am. Not too bad.Today was a great day for Samuel! I think I can safely say this was his best day overall so fall since the accident. He woke up in a good mood and pretty well stayed in a good mood all day. The doctors in the morning commented on how calm he seemed to them. They were very impressed. They are concerned that he is having some urinary retention and constipation. They may change his pump a bit to try and solve that problem because one side effect of the pump can be urinary retention. They also ordered tests to determine how his vision and hearing are. Otherwise, they kept things the same.
We haven’t heard back about the EEG yet. We also didn’t get to change the cast from his left to his right arm because the woman that needed to make the change won’t be available until tomorrow.
I took him for a ride about 11:30 am because he was in such a good mood. By about 12:15, he was a little upset so I took him back for a nap. (I guess some things never change!) He took tranxene at 12:15 and was sound asleep within 20 minutes. But we opted to also give him the clonadine so he would sleep longer. He slept until 4 pm when we finally woke him!
At 4pm, he went for physical therapy. It was the best session he’s had. Not because he was happy about it - because he usually isn’t - but because he was so relaxed. They didn’t really even have to “fight” him through the whole session. His body just moved the way they wanted it to. They kept saying, “Is this the same body we were working with last week?” It was great. And the funnest thing was watching how hard he tried to focus on his Aunt Kaylee. He sure has a thing for her and made a lot of eye contact with her today. I think that time he threw up on her really bonded them!
My dad watched him this evening while I went to dinner with Aunt Kaylee and Grandma Bird. He was even good for Papa (my dad). And when I got back, we rocked in the rocking chair together. I brought his favorite blanket with me today and when I showed it to him, he focused right on it. I asked him if he wanted it and then put it in his hand. He had been figiting in the chair and didn’t want to lay his head down. But as soon as that blanket touched his face, he put his head down on it and relaxed away. His heart rate was down in the 90’s, but he was awake!
He just fell asleep (it’s 9 pm) after just a dose of traxene. I put him in bed and asked him if he wanted his “blankie”. Then I put it by his face and underneath his arm and he calmed right down. I am absolutely sure he recognizes it and it glad to have it here!
They are not going to do surgery on him tomorrow. The surgeon got back in town today and looked at his tests for reflux and isn’t convinced that he needs the nissen. The rehab doctors, however, do feel he needs it. They both gave me their reasons for doing or not doing it and I was left to feel like I didn’t want it done, but I was afraid of him getting aspiration pneumonia at some point down the road. I really trust two of my rehab doctors, so I told them to work it out with the surgeon and let me know what they decided.
They came up with a compromise. They are going to pull his NJ tube that is running through his nose and into his small intestines back out a little so it runs into his stomach. Then they are going to try to feed him through that and see how he does. If they feel he is more agitated or if he seems to be throwing up or gagging or aspirating or refluxing, then they will do the nissen and the g-tube. If not, they will just do the g-tube.
The only draw back is that it will extend our stay here a little bit. But I think that is worth making sure he needs the nissen before we do it.
Keep praying hard!
Love,
All us Jewkes
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