Day 3

How's that for a catchy title?

Day 3 has been a good day.  Exhausting, but for entirely different reasons than day 1 and 2.

Gabe slept really well last night.

He went to sleep at around 8 and pretty much slept all night.  We had a fabulous nurse that was so, so considerate of him sleeping.  She was quick and quiet administering his meds and checking all his stats.  I'm sure I slept through a ton of her visits to our room, but the few I did wake up for I found Gabe awake, but peaceful.

I knew that the nurse getting labs (drawing a vile of blood) would be around early and that I wanted to be up for that.  She showed up around 3:30 am.  I was expecting Gabe to be very upset considering how he responded to labs at pre-op.  I'm not sure if it was the morphine or what, but he was very calm and only clenched his teeth when she stuck the needle in.  He didn't even shed a tear.

He was pretty awake after that so we had a little dance party with our finger lasers before falling back asleep for a couple hours.

The morning was pretty uneventful.

Gabe has kind of retreated into himself, which I'm told is very normal for his age when trying to cope with something this traumatic.  He's not really talking to us and very stingy with smirks, no real smiles going on.  He still won't eat, but as long as he is trying to drink, the doctor is ok with that.  Other then a trip to radiology for a chest X-ray, we spent the morning in the room.

We did have some excitement when a special visitor showed up.

Look at that!  A smile for his big sister.

Seriously, she walked in the room and he scooted right up in bed and started talking to her.  See?  My kids do love each other!

Originally, we weren't going to have Josie come up to the hospital.  We just weren't sure what Gabe would be like or how Josie would take it all.  However, on Thursday we decided that, while we weren't sure we would bring her up to see him, there was no reason she couldn't come to see us.  He was doing so well this morning that we decided it was totally fine, and probably good, for her to visit him.

She was so great.  Pretty nervous about his chest tubes so she wouldn't get too close to him, but she did pull his wagon for a bit and brought him lots of smiles.

It did my heart so, so good to see her.

We all went down to the cafeteria for lunch.  Gabe fell asleep in the wagon so Andrew brought him up to the room while we took Josie to explore a little.

we like to coordinate our hospital ensembles

They left around 2:30 to head to the airport.  I know she will have so much fun and be back in no time, but I miss her and my Mom already.  Can't wait until they come back.

This afternoon hasn't been so low key.

Gabe threw up a few times and was moaning and just generally uncomfortable.  Other than the little nap he took in the wagon, he didn't sleep at all today.  We tried adjusting his meds and did everything we could think of to get him more comfortable but he just wasn't.

Around 3:30, I went to see if he could get some pain meds a little early.  By the time I got back, he had puked everywhere and was really, really uncomfortable.  It was obvious something wasn't right.  The nurse (who is the same awesome nurse we had yesterday) was pretty sure he had a clot in his chest tube.  He wasn't putting out nearly enough fluid.  The doctor told her to change that out in hopes that it would relieve some of the discomfort.

Right when she changed it, the fluid started flowing.  Gabe went into a bit of a panic that was pretty scary.  His eyes got huge and he was holding his breath.  It took a few minutes for him to relax.  The nurse thinks it was the sensation of the fluid build up rushing out.  Once he calmed down, he fell asleep pretty fast.

After a good nap, his Aunt Amber came to visit.

We are missing home quite a bit so it was nice to have her here.  We had dinner together, went for a big stroll, and hung out.   Gabe even sat up on the couch while we ate.  So far he's been too scared to sit straight up, so this was a big achievement.  He's still not really eating but he tried.

She is coming back tomorrow with David and the girls.  I think Gabe will be super excited to see them all.

We tried to let him play a video game but by the time we got it all set up, it was time for his pain meds.  He hit a couple buttons then just set the remote down and started to doze off.  That stuff works fast!

See that amazing Dad?  Pretty sure I couldn't have survived this without him.  He's taking care of both of us and is pretty dang good at it.  Not bad to look at either, wink.

There are a few things that we are needing to have happen.

For one, Gabe hasn't eaten yet.  We got him to take a few bites of yogurt this morning and he ate a bite of a hot dog and a few grapes, but that's it in the last 3 days.  The doctors said as long as he is drinking, it's fine, but we would love to see him start eating just a little.

They want him to start walking.  He took a few steps today with Andrew's help, but is really scared to put weight on his feet.  The extra fluid build up had him feeling extra crappy today so we didn't push it, but I know they will tomorrow.  The good thing about that is that if he starts walking a little, it can help push more fluid out.  More fluid out means we can get out of here faster.

His chest X-ray this morning was pretty "wet."  They said this means he has fluid build up around his lungs.  They are giving him a diuretic to try to get it out.  We need tomorrow's X-ray to be better.

Having that clot in his tube is kind of a set back.  We pretty much lost a day of drainage.  Boo.  The nurse said he could dump a lot of fluid in the next few hours to make up for it and that seems to be happening, but if not we lost it.  He will have another chest X-ray in the morning and we will be able to tell then if he did or not.

I'm hoping he gets a good night's rest, dumps a lot of fluid, and that his little personality starts showing through a little.  It's insanely hard to see him sitting there just staring off into space.  I miss my spunky little boy that was so good at driving me batty.

Thank you for your comments, prayers, and overall love for our Gabe.

I have no other explanation for the reason we have so much peace and calmness with all that's gone on in the past 48 hours.  Waking up from a sleep that is less than a third of what I normally need, not needing a cup of coffee, and being cheerful is nothing short of a miracle for me!