I am now at Sam's bedside with Bill's laptop. Bill has gone back to the RMH with Carolina and will attempt a night with her on his own. I'm not really sure how he and his jet-lagged body will get her there and do everything they need to do, but I'm sure it'll get done.
Pray for a smooth evening with her. I can only imagine what he's about to experience.
Here's what I know that I didn't share with you earlier. I'd written previously that Sam's number on his old lead was at a dangerous 2.3 and as low as 1.8, but when we last interrogated the device two weeks ago, it was a 4. Dr. Buck felt that it needed to be a 5 in order not to do surgery, so he wanted to go ahead with it anyway.
It took his surgeon many tries today of sewing the new lead on and getting low numbers before he finally found a sweet spot. He said the key was in getting two leads a little farther apart from each other than normal. He landed on a spot that was in the low 20's when they sewed Sam up. That's what it's supposed to be! Praise God.
His surgeon said we know a few new things about his heart. First, it's strong, very strong - and definitely stronger than two years ago. They tried to put his heart into VTAC to test the device three times. The first time it wouldn't even get into VTAC. The second time it was very short and the third time it was also very short - his heart came out of VTAC on its own. That's great news. They didn't want to push the issue, so they decided not to check if it works, because we already know it does work and that the shocking lead is perfectly fine (they replaced the R-wave lead today).
The second thing we learned today is that his heart is still very messed up. All the electricity flowing through it is very unpredictable. Finding the "sweet spot" was much more difficult than it would be on any other person.
The surgery took about four and a half hours.
He is going to be in the PICU until they take out his epidural. They may leave that in another day (so 2 days total). If his STATS start dropping (like the oxygen level) they may back off the epidural some overnight, especially since he's still so sedated.
The collapsed lung may prove to be a problem tomorrow. If they can't get it to re-inflate (through crying or blowing bubbles), they will have to beat his chest. Remember though, his chest has a very long incision in it that isn't being covered by pain meds. So, that could prove to be very painful.
He is in a considerable amount of pain whenever he moves right now. We've had to move him up on his bed a little bit to help with his position and it was extremely uncomfortable for him.
Please pray for his pain management overnight.
Pray for rest for our family.
3 comments:
Wow Teesa. What a day for your family. I am so thankful that our God is carrying your family through this.
Melia had a collapsed lung in January after her surgery. For some reason, she did not have any interest in blowing bubbles but liked putting a straw in a cup of water and blowing bubbles in the water. She also sometimes would take a straw and try to blow a small paper ball across the little portable table. She also did a good bit of crying.
I am sorry to hear that Sam has the collapsed lung. After all his little body has been through today it just doesn't seem fair to have one more thing to worry about.
We are praying!
Love,
Karen Haury
TEESA- You all have been in my thoughts and prayers all day!!! I hope sam has a good night and the pain is kept at bay!!! HUGS to you all!! And i hope carolina goes to sleep fast and it is a good night for her and Bill! Thinking of you all!!
Praying for strength and rest for all of you and your extended family. Praying for Sam's lung to reinflate completely, all on its own, so that no additional pain must be felt. Praying for pain management for Sam and peace for you and the family! We love you all!
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