12/1 (Sunday) - Tomorrow is the Day

The on call surgeon was in Leo's room at 7:00am requesting the tools he needed to remove the chest tube. He started undoing the bandage and then looked at the drainage collector and said oh I didn't realize the suction was still on.  He likes the suction to be off for 24hours before pulling the tube to help the wound heal after the tube is gone. So we are delayed another day. Leo's surgeon will be back tomorrow so we will see if he agrees with the on-call surgeon that Leo is ready to be tubeless.

Leo went 8 straight hours on a lower oxygen setting and the nurse had just finished a note to his chart about how good he did....she literally hit submit and he decided to quit breathing for about a minute. First he turned really red, then purple and was heading towards blue. His nurse and the nurse practitioner were in the room at the time. They lifted him out of bed vertical (which I've never seen with all his tubes and wires) and just encouraged him to breathe and also turned up his oxygen and pressure.  He slowly climbed back up to good stats. This happens to him every now and then, but this is the most severe I've seen. The nurses and doctors here do not seem too alarmed by it because I guess the preemies do this all the time. 

Leo is also being weaned off his pain meds.  He is no longer on the IV pain med fentanyl. It was replaced by methadone, which he received through his feeding tube.  He is scheduled to be on that for nearly two more weeks so it is a really slow weaning process.

I think in one of the posts we mentioned that he has a PICC line which is like a central line in adults. It is a long-term IV that delivers IV fluids/meds directly to his core. Well today they figured out one of the two lines in his PICC line is clogged up. They said he should get the PICC out shortly after the chest tube anyway so they are not too concerned.

Hopefully tomorrow we will share news of less tubes and better breathing!