OOOPs!

Sorry I forgot to say that Bridger was extubated on Thursday, and they even let him pull out his own breathing tube! He is much calmer without it, but again this morning he was still working on a fever. A couple of changes were made to his IV medications so we will see if that helps him tonight. This morning he and I got to take a nap on a mat on the floor together. It was great! Just lying there and holding hands. He is soooo sweet. And this afternoon while Danny was here, Bridger finally started smiling again and even laughing at me. Otherwise no other changes for now.

Another fever

Bridger spiked a fever again this morning. So far his cultures from the fever a few days ago have shown nothing, so they are repeating all of the same cultures again today. For today there is not much on the board for today, we will just try to keep him cool and find the cause for the fever

Never a dull moment

Bridger had a rough day yesterday, he was very restless and uncomfortable. I thought that maybe he was just ready to have his breathing tube out and that was what had been making him mad. So his sedation was increased and he settled down until about 5:00 this morning. He became furious, his heart rate shot up to 200 from 120 earlier, and his breathing became very distressed. They checked his tempurature and it was 39.5 (103). So he had blood and urine cultures drawn, and well as a viral respiratory panel. For right now we have been put on isolation in case of a virus. Because all of this causes him respiratory distress, the doctors will not look to wean the ventilator any more today. Hopefully we can get Bridger more comfortable and have a quiet day.

Timing is everything

Today is a big day for Bridger. He needs to have the central line in his neck removed, the arterial line in his right wrist removed, a drain is his abdomen removed and have his g-tube changed out. However, the trick to all of this is that it must be done while his blood thinner is off and it can't be left off for to long. So the doctors are are trying to coordinating all of the specialists to be at the bedside at the same time, and the nurse will have to reroute all of his IV medications from his central line to the PICC line that was placed yesterday. So there will be alot going on today for Bridger and hopefully it won't stress him out too much.

-----Staci

The pacemaker

On Friday, Bridger's heart was having trouble sensing the external pacemaker which caused his heart rate and blood pressure to drop dangerously low. So yesterday morning his doctors decided that he needed a permanent pacemaker placed and that it needed to be soon in order to avoid further complications. At 8:45 this morning they took our little man back to surgery for what will hopefully be the last time for quite a while.

-----Staci

One week

Bridger had his mitral valve replaced one week ago today! Yesterday they removed the central line in his neck as well as his breathing tube. He is on high flow oxygen now and so far he is maintaining. The atrium and ventricle in his heart are still not communicating, so right now he is still on the external pacemaker. After all of this my beautiful boy still gives me sweet smiles and even giggles, he is a such a good sport. They will give his heart another week to see if it will start communicating before they look to further intervention, so we will see.

-------Staci

Recovery

Bridger had an echo on his heart yesterday that showed decreased function. The different parts of his heart are still not communicating well with each other, so he is still on the pacemaker. The doctors are hoping that this is just part of the recovery phase for him, saying that most people would still be recovering from one heart surgery after 6 months and he has had three heart surgeries in that time. So we are just going to take it slow and hopefully with time things will improve.

-------Staci