Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Roller coaster of a day

Here's something you need to know about me - I hate roller coasters.  Like seriously am scared to death of them.  Today, this day that is supposed to be lucky (11-12-13), has not been so much for us in Iowa City.

Things started overnight with a very uncomfortable Blake about 2:00 AM.  His belly was very distended, so we slowed down on his overnight feeds.  By morning, they had completely turned them off.  It was a night of Blake crying, trying to get comfortable and me feeling overly exhausted and not very helpful.

We also noticed that Blaker's hadn't produced any urine over about a four hour time period.  Yes, panic clearly set in.  Urology came up to flush the catheters (he has two) and they both worked.  An ultrasound was ordered to check the kidney and bladder.

Do you have any idea how nerve wracking it is sitting there while the ultrasound is being done and not having a clue how to read it?  I probably annoyed the nice lady, but I kept asking how things looked.  About the time she finished up, the transplant surgeon on call came around.

Here's some good news:
-The kidney is working GREAT! Praise the Lord!
-The bladder also looked good!
-The catheters are both functioning the way they should.
-Blake's blood pressure has been pretty consistently in a good range.
-The cultures came back this morning unfounded, so there's no infection in his blood stream. 

The problem is, they don't know WHY Blake's abdomen is so distended.  So...he is having a CT scan done with contrast to see what they find.  There may possibly be a leak in the bladder.  The drain they have in for excess blood/fluids from surgery may not be working.  Or, maybe something else.

His white blood cell count did go up slightly, so they aren't sure if he has an infection in his abdominal region that they just can't see.

There's so many cooks in the kitchen.  The nephrology team.  The PICU team.  The transplant team.  The urology team.  They all come see you every single day and it's just always a lot of information to process.

No word has been given on the exact time of the CT scan.  Because he has to be sedated, they will also be putting a central line in prior to the scan.  This will be nice because we can just draw labs out of it and not have to poke him daily.

I will let you know how things turn out as soon as I can.  Please pray for results and solutions to what is found.  Hopefully, Blake can get off this roller coaster soon...

3 comments:

Marcia said...

We Continue to pray for your little guy!

Linda R said...

you all continue to be in my prayers daily, especially Blake! Thank you for putting the information in your blog about how Blake is doing! I hope they have found out why his stomach is distended. May you all continue to be strong! Linda

Anonymous said...

So i found yourRachelhrough your instagram and noticed you havent posted in a bit and made me think of your sons progress!Wow, your days sound like ours. We were suppose to leave 6 days ago. But we also had the no peeing issue happen talk about scary! Did all the same tests and all were okay. He was just dehydrated because he cant tolerate the amount if fluids he needs through his gtube, so we are still here trying to figure out that situation. It gets so frustrating when a million drs are involved specially when your exhausted. I also feel as though we are on a roller coaster. I hope all goes well with Blakes scan!
Sincerely, Jaxsons mommy (Rachel)
My email is -babyayden@hotmail.com
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