It was my call to stay in the hospital with Caden over night even though we technically could have gone home with him tonight. The bleeding has all but stopped and Caden has met all of the doctor’s criteria for discharge. That said, the doctor was okay if we wanted to wait until the morning to go home. The main reason I wanted to stay here tonight is because I am still not over the events of last night with all of the bleeding. I was also concerned about the late hour for the discharge. Caden and Riley would have not been able to get into bed until after 10pm. Chances were very high that we would not have been able to get the medications from the pharmacy tonight so we would have had to make it to morning without anything more than OTC medications.
I also wanted to watch Caden for another 12 hours or so with the O2 monitor. His saturations have been hanging in the mid to upper 90’s without oxygen all day. Even so, by the time I got back to his room tonight, his heart rate was up by about 30 beats per minute as compared to last night and his sats were down in the low 90’s. The elevated heart rate generally means he is uncomfortable. Even though he got some pain medicine (Tylenol w/codeine) at about 7pm, he did not go to sleep until almost 9pm. His sats and heart rate did finally settled down after he went to sleep. We have told the nurse to pull the trigger on the discharge papers at 9am tomorrow morning. That will give Sherry and Riley and chance to get a good night’s sleep before collecting Caden and me. Hopefully I can knock down some uninterrupted sleep later in the morning.
Caden did get to have a some fun today. Sherry took him down to the atrium. Caden got to see his former EI (early interventionist) who now works full time for MUSC. Caden has been in pretty good spirits today and has played a good bit. He has shown very few signs of pain and has only been getting Tylenol with Codeine every 4-6 hours for pain since leaving recovery yesterday.
Prayer Requests
I did find the father of the little girl who had surgery yesterday. The dad told me that his little girl has been diagnosed with a very rare genetic disorder. Much more rare than 22q11.2. While talking to this dad, one of our old PCICU friends walked into the waiting room. Both of these dads are in law enforcement in the upstate and even shared some mutual acquaintances. It was a great opportunity for the dad of this newborn to hear from two of us dads who have been in his shoes that there is hope for these little kids who seem to be hanging by a thread. It sounds like the this little girl is facing some very similar heath issues as Caden. I prayed with this dad and gave him our contact information. I will also tell my sister to pass the word back through her friends that we are serious about helping in anyway needed. Please continue to pray for the Patterson family.
Praise Report
It was great to talk to the father of Caden’s little friend from back in 2004. His daughter is the little girl I wrote about frequently right after Caden was born. She was born a few days before Caden and she got VERY sick at one point. Here is a little snip of what I wrote about her back in November 2004.
“Caden’s little friend that I mention every so often is the only child in the PCICU who has been there longer than Caden. I talked to her parents at length last night and it looks like she may get to transfer to her own room in a few days. Praise the Lord. I was kidding with her parents a little last night. I told them that Caden is following their daughter’s every move so they had better get moving. She was born three days before Caden. She had her surgery three days before Caden. Who knows, maybe Caden will go up to 7C three days after her. That would be great wouldn’t it?”
This little friend of Caden ended up being discharged just over a week prior to Caden back in 2004. We have run into this family every time they have been back at MUSC for a surgery. This should be their last trip after completing the three separate surgeries required to repair a left hypo plastic heart. By the way, that is about as serious of a heart defect as they come. The surgeon basically ends up converting the heart into a two chamber heart to save the child’s life. She had her third surgery last Thursday and is already in her own room and doing great. Praise God!