Cannula completely came off yesterday evening. After only a few hours they realized our little guy didn't need it and was doing well on room air alone!
The NG tube sadly was put back in but this was a compromise in order to be able to begin feeding fully today. The nurses were really pushing for oral feeds to start yesterday however the doctors weren't in agreement and insisted that Titus be completely off the Dex before oral feeds start in order to avoid the risk of aspiration. An incident like that could set us back quite a bit so I was okay with being more conservative with this especially since we had so much progress yesterday.
Today, Titus is now weaned completely off milrinone, epinephrine, and dexmedetomidine. They will keep the lines in for now, delivering an extremely low dose of heparin, along with some fluids, just in case he needs to go back on any meds. Titus has not yet needed any morphine for pain management. Its hard to believe that two days post open heart surgery all he is on is two small doses of Tylenol! What a champ!!
So here is what is left:
1. Pulse Oximeter: To monitor Oxygen levels in his tissues.
2. PICC line: the central access for all meds, antibiotics, TPN to be delivered.
3. Arterial Line: Monitors his blood pressure
4. Heparin: Blood thinner that prevents clotting around the artificial tube they inserted in his heart. This will be weaned off before we go home and will be replaced with a daily aspirin.
5. Heart monitor leads: Monitors the heart rate.
6. Lasix: A more mild diuretic that he will go home on to prevent excess fluid build up.
7. NG tube: Should come out once feeds are established...I am still getting the run around on when that will be but for now they want to continue increasing the amount of breast milk he is receiving by 4mL every three hours until the goal feed of 70mL is reached.
The goal now is to continue monitoring overnight and possibly move to step down tomorrow (Friday)! Praise the Lord!
Our awesome nurse Nikki. She was aggressive in removing his meds and weaning him off oxygen (which turned out he didn't need at all!). She really advocated for us at a very critical time in his recovery and we couldn't thank her enough!
NG tube and pulse Ox are the only things left on his sweet face!
Daily check with the Pediatric Cardiologist.
Evan meeting his little brother for the first time!
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