3/12/09

Hi Everyone, Tomas had a really rough night and we almost lost him twice. Let me start at the end and say he is quite stable now and resting well. Now for the scary story. His surgery went very well and he had no issues during surgery or recovery. After he came back to his room he began bleeding through his dressing and was very fussy. Every time he would arch his back or crunch his stomach more blood would ooze out. We finally got him under control by me holding him and putting pressure on his abdomen to stop the bleeding. It only slowed the bleeding but worked for a while. During that time he stopped breathing and turned blue. After I flopped him around a bit and Mike went to get a nurse he came out of it. We settled him into his crib and I began the long night of watching. He seemed ok for a few hours after that, but was still bleeding through his dressing and soaking his blankets. The surgeons came down and re-dressed his wounds several times during the night. He stopped breathing several times but they were all relatively quick until around 4 am. He stopped breathing and his heart rate took a nosedive. Thank God his respiratory therapist was in the room when it happened. Her name is Lauren and she stayed in his room when she walked in and saw that I had the bright lights on and was sitting there staring at him. She didn't like the way he was breathing so she stood by his crib and just watched with me. Please lift her up in your prayers because she saved my son's life. After a few minutes of watching he went into one of his episodes. Before that one I had been able to get him out of them by stimulating him and he would begin breathing again. This time he did not respond, and after several seconds of trying Lauren pulled the code cord and began "bagging" him. The code alarm sent everyone into his room and they worked on him and were able to get him through with just the bag. It is a mask attached to a bag that forces oxygen into his lungs. Think CPR but with oxygen. Finally after that episode the staff started paying attention. They noticed he was very pale and drew labs for his hemoglobin count. All the while he was still bleeding albeit less than for starters. During the attempts at drawing his labs he went into respiratory distress again and needed to be bagged again. Finally the decision was made to move him to ICU. A short while later his labs came back and his hemoglobin showed he was severely anemic. Blood was ordered and about halfway through his transfusion his breathing improved dramatically. Amazing what having blood INSIDE your body can do for you. He was moved to ICU around 8am and will likely remain there for 24-48 hours. Like I said he is completely stable and breathing without a ventilator but he does still have oxygen support. His bleeding stopped completely and he has been asleep all day until around 9pm when he woke up for about 15 minutes and then passed out again. I am sleeping at the Ronald Mcdonald house with the girls tonight so I can get some rest. I can finally relax a little bit knowing he is being constantly monitored. Again and again and again I thank you all for praying for us. Really right now nothing can help us more. We are waiting to see how well he recovers and then he will need to be weaned of the oxygen. After that he can begin feeds through his G tube and we will hope that his reflux is resolved.