At the End of the Day

It always seems to be so late by the time I get around to these updates . . . where does the time go? And apologies for leaving most of you hanging without much of an explanation in my previous entry. There really is no letting up these days . . .

So Eddie is doing ok after his procedure this afternoon. It was all a bit of a surprise for us since we had no idea he would be going into the operating room for the PICC line insertion. Since his central line was in his groin and thus much more susceptible to infection, we knew from the beginning we would need a more secure PICC line in his chest. However, with all of his ECMO and Berlin Heart excitement, the PICC line kept getting deprioritized (rightly so).

We discovered this morning that the IR team (Interventional Radiology) was taking Eddie to their operating room and he would need to be anesthetized for the duration. After enduring yet another discussion of risks for this procedure and signing the consent forms, Eddie rolled away. This time, however, we were allowed to tag along all the way to the OR . . . and Sarah even got to ride on the bed reading stories to Eddie.

When we arrived at the operating room, it looked something like the picture below. Basically, by using a combination of ultrasound and fluoroscopy, the doctors are able to get real-time, living images from multiple vantage points. Pretty amazing.

After a little more than an hour, the nurses brought Eddie back to the room for his daily dressing change and echocardiogram. There really is a lot of choreography that goes on in a hospital since everyone would prefer to minimize the number of times Eddie needs to be sedated, anesthetized, or otherwise drugged.

On the topic of sedation, Eddie has been receiving a continuous infusion of anti-anxiety and pain medications since he was admitted to the ICU three weeks ago. We are currently in the process of weaning him, but it will probably take two weeks until he can come off completely. Goal of moving so slowly is to avoid any withdrawal complications. While he has been a bit more lucid each day, we are happy to take this process step by step and are in no rush.

A final bit of good news . . . we heard Eddie's first real laugh in three weeks this morning. He was smiling quite a bit and really loved having Sarah in his bed reading to him. We are hoping he can rest up tonight and recover from today's operation so he can pass his "swallow" test tomorrow. If he does, he'll finally get some of the apple juice he has been begging for the past few weeks. Fingers crossed!