Rich was “on duty” with Anthony this morning, while I was getting some stuff done around the house. I sent him a text message asking if he was at the hospital. Ask a silly question, and you get a silly answer:
Anthony is doing well today. He hasn’t had any pain meds since 7am and seems comfortable. He is definitely not quite himself as evidenced by no smiling yet. He has some congestion which isn’t surprising. Will need some chest PT. They started him on Pedialyte at 10cc an hour via the new J-tube. They will increase the rate and eventually switch him over to Peptamen as tolerated. He has been at 10cc per hour for 4 hours and so far so good. The G-tube is draining via gravity to keep his stomach empty.
We will likely be moving to the regular pediatric floor today.
I came in at 11am and Rich and I had lunch together in Anthony’s room. He has a really good nurse today. I’ve been very impressed with the nursing care here in the PICU.
We were chatting with the nurse about our boys and the care involved at home. She was just amazed that I was able to take care of the boys myself. Don’t I get nursing help? I told her that I manage just fine and that it really wasn’t that difficult. She was very impressed. Then she asked me if I was able to walk. At that point, I realized that I was sitting in Anthony’s wheelchair! There was only one chair in the room, so I just sat in Anthony’s chair. Never gave it a thought. We all had a good chuckle!
Will update again soon and post a photo of Anthony’s new tubes.
I suppose it would be pretty darn impressive to do all that and not be able to walk and STILL not need nursing help!