Friday, March 18, 2011

A pretty long day!

This afternoon was pretty eventful! Our nurse definitely got her money's worth today! The first event was getting a CPT treatment. This is when the respiratory therapist places a vibrating instrument on Parker's chest and back. This breaks up the secretions in his lungs and hopefully prevents pneumonia. Imagine how that feels on his hurting chest...I can't!



You can also see the little bear he hugs whenever he needs to cough. Coughing is hard work and not fun at all, but he keeps pushing on!
Parker was also able to turn on his side today! This is how he sleeps at home and he seemed a lot more comfy.


The next event was the chest X-ray. That hard board under his chest did not feel to good! Parker had a small pneumothorax in both of his upper lungs this morning. The X-ray this evening showed no change (not getting any bigger) so that's good news and doesn't require any change in treatment.


He also got to sit up this evening! I think this was his favorite part of the day. Even though he doesnt have the happiest face, he was enjoying himself!



He actually fell asleep like that!

Today was a long day of being uncomfortable and trying to find Parkers perfect "cocktail" for pain control. He finally went to sleep around 7 and his night nurse made this sign for his door.


And this is how we left him tonight.


He had a long day but made a lot of progress! Today he got his catheter out, his arterial line out, the dopamine drip turned off, started on pain medication by mouth, and started eating!! He even got his long awaited chicken and French fries! He is still on the pacemaker, but I'm not stressing too much about that yet.
I am sure tomorrow will be filled with a lot more progress, can't wait to share!
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1 comments:

The Simmons Family said...

He's doing so great! Keep it up Parker! Owen was coughing up to three weeks after this last surgery and my heart just broke every time. I can't imagine the pain.