Day 2 post Surgery

Caleb was a champ through another surgery yesterday.  The anesthesiologist met with us prior to the surgery that morning to tell us that he would not be doing the epidural.  He was concerned that holding the Lovenox shots for his blood clot (which we would've had to do for at least 4 days) would have been dangerous to him.   He said that he thought and thought, and lost sleep the night prior over this case, and just couldn't take such a risk.  The pain from this surgery is high and the concern with not being able to use the epidural to help manage the pain was that he would not take big breaths causing difficulty being extubated.  Prayerfully, he came out of a successful surgery and was off the vent prior to recovery!  The surgeon, Dr. Neblitt, spoke with us and said that he did the Nissen, g- tube, and additionally found that his diaphragm was herniated so he put a few stitches in it.  Caleb has been in the PCICU since.  He came off oxygen, but required it early evening and has been on a liter today.  Pain was being managed via a morphine pump that could be pushed once every 15 minutes, if needed.  He started getting a small amount of Pedialyte through his g- tube, through continuous venting.  He had edema (swelling) on his face and upper chest, which by mid day, was worsening and got quite scary.  He began retracting while breathing, nasal flaring, rib pulling, stomach expanding, dropping satts to low 50's...and this all quickly went from bad to worse.  They gave him extra deuretics and put him on Vapotherm (so his feeds have been stopped).  They stopped the morphine pump and want him to wake a bit more.  Praying for a quick turnaround.