Post-Fontan Night 7 - Updated!!!

Quick Update (5/16/2014 10:05 AM): The doctors just finished rounds and we received some EXCELLENT news!!! As of right now, the plan is to remove his left and right pleural chest tubes and pacing wires this afternoon after Dr. K is out of surgery (Chase's surgeon, Dr. B, isn't here today). Hurray!!! It sounds like his central IV will also come out of his neck (a huge relief to Chase as the tegaderm is constantly pulling his skin and is very uncomfortable). This means the ONLY thing left will be his medialstinal chest tube, which is on track for coming out tomorrow!!!!!

Way to rock the Fontan, Chase!!!

Chase had a great evening and night last night. His o2 was turned OFF and has stayed off! Yay!! This makes him super happy because he was constantly irritated by that nasal cannula. His left and right pleural chest tubes have drained almost nothing and I feel pretty confident they will both come out today. Praise! His mediastinal chest tube drainage has slowed significantly but I would imagine it will stay until tomorrow.

We had a visit yesterday from a nurse who was preparing the prescriptions that we would go HOME on, which was a very encouraging thing! He'll continue to take a baby aspirin (for life), will have Lasix (a diuretic) to help continue to dry him up (he'll wean completely off of it over the course of 2-3 weeks following discharge) and a 5-day supply of Oxyxodone for pain (helpful with the long car ride home). He was on the blood pressure medicine Enalapril before surgery but they haven't started that one back up yet. It's possible they won't put him back on it since his BP has been so great, which means he'd literally be down to taking one aspirin a day -- THAT'S IT! Awesome!!!

Yesterday he was able to get out of bed and take the wagon down to the Atrium (play area) TWICE and even got up and walked around while we were there, which was HUGE! He had a great time playing with big sis, Gramma & PaPa.












After the play room fun, he fell asleep early, around 7pm, and basically slept through the night.


This is great because he certainly needs the rest -- especially after his big day of moving around and walking. But he didn't eat dinner, won't eat breakfast this morning and hasn't peed in over 12 hours, even with Lasix. We definitely need to get him eating and drinking more today.

I'll update this post after this morning's rounds to see if we'll be losing any chest tubes today. Please pray this is the case!