Trouble is the name

We had a pretty good day today, post surgery days are seemingly more stressful than the surgery day in some ways.  Braeden's colour is looking better now though and his extremities aren't as cold as they were yesterday so the blood is flowing better.  His blood was quite acidic over night and they had to give him meds to counter act against that but it is most likely due to the stress of the surgery.  He had a fairly quiet night last night overall, he just saves up his drama to hit all at once it would seem.  He is living up to his first chosen name of "Trouble" as he extubated himself tonight.  Thankfully he is doing well on the nasal prongs but they will have to CPAP him again since he is having to work too hard at breathing.  The plan was to extubate him tomorrow morning anyhow but he just decided to do it for them!

Braeden is receiving another transfusion tonight as his haemoglobin levels have dropped dramatically again over the last 12 hrs.  The only real reason for this is if there is an internal bleed somewhere.  The nurses are a bit stumped as his outward appearance is not indicative to this.  They will transfuse him again and if they drop again they will have to do a lot more searching to get to the bottom of it.

Braeden's surgical sight on the heart itself looks good, his heart is strong but he is being a stinker tonight and having irregular rhythms.  He is seemingly having a slow beat every once in awhile.  The Cardiologist isn't super concerned but they will be keeping a close eye on it.  It is more prevalent when he is agitated (like pulling out one's vent tube), so his nurse Jen is going to try to let him have a quiet night.

He did get some wonderful visitors today though!  He got to meet his Great Auntie Sue and his Great Auntie Maureen, both of whom fell instantly in love (I mean how could you not??).  The NICU visiting here thankfully is a bit more lenient than Calgary, although Sue was fully prepared to be 'Grandma' if she had to be!  It was wonderful to see you both!

So the BIG news of the day is that they are most likely sending B home tomorrow.  Yep, tomorrow, 48 hrs out of heart surgery!!!  Yikes.  They will remove his chest tube tomorrow morning and if there are no major changes (like crazy heart rates or haemoglobin issues) they will put in the order to transport back to Calgary.  The only other thing possibly in the way of the transfer is not having a bed in Calgary for him.  I'm not sure yet if they will be sending him to Foothills or Childrens', again it depends on the bed situation.  Mike is driving up with the boys (as is the plan now) tomorrow morning to give them a bit of an adventure and to have them participate in a positive outlook for a change.  We want them to have a chance to see the RMH and play here, they will love it.  I don't want them to view all of the issues with Braeden as negative so some nice time with Mom and Dad in Edmonton will hopefully change that for them both (again assuming we are still here).

I am certainly feeling a bit more relaxed with the surgery behind us, (if you can call insomnia and the shakes relaxed)...