Part of the vessel that was interrupted was cut and and sewn back onto itself had begun to shrink called "Stenosis". If you can imagine taking a hose and shrinking just a section of it but continuing the same amount of water flow through the tube, it creates a much higher amount of pressure in that specific narrowing spot. This was causing two problems: 1) His Right Ventricle was working that much harder to push the blood through the vessel and 2) blood flow was not being delivered to key areas of his body.
I had mentioned the feeding problem we were having. He seemed to be in pain during most of his feeds and he was fussing at nearly every feed. Dr. Kelly (Our Pediatric Cardiologist at OHSU) decided that the combined stenosis in his aortic arch & diet issues were enough to have him admitted for a catheter angioplasty procedure and his diet was changed immediately. A lower amount of lactose in the formula and the amounts of milk were taken down and then gradually raised at the end of the day. In other words he would start with 60mL at 6am and at 9pm be given 80mL. The rest of the evening would be given to him through the tube on a pump at specific increments throughout the night.
He had to give blood for labs before being admitted, which was an excruciating 1.5 hours of screaming and no results. His veins are so tiny and almost shaped like a corkscrew. A special team was called into the blood lab and get a vein, but no luck. He was finally admitted after 5 hours of waiting around in the lobby & began his new diet plan. He was scheduled for the "cath" procedure on Saturday morning around 8:30am.
The cath went fairly well according to the team, this meant that they were "good" with the amount of the balloon stretching in the vein, the numbers were in the normal range for blood flow. He was then admitted once again to the PICU for recovery and observation. Steele was put under full anesthesia for this treatment, which is why the admission to PICU. Rachel and I went home with Ryleigh and waited for the phone call when he would wake-up, start breathing on his own and hopefully get extubated. Yes, he was intubated for this procedure. Hours and hours passed and no phone call, I was getting worried. I called the PICU and asked for an update and they were still waiting for the order to extubate. We all headed to OHSU around 7pm and found out that he had blood in his stool and an infection was ocurring in his stomach or somewhere in the intestines, they could not tell us which, not good news.
He would go on an IV for antibiotics and be fed sugar water for nutrition. The goal here was to fight off any infection and not put any stress on the stomach. The piece that frustrated us, was that this cath procedure was going to help, not make it worse. Overnight he was watched closely and Rachel came back early in the morning on Sunday. The order came in mid-morning to extubate him, but keep him on the fluids, antibiotics & pain med's. My mother came to town to pick up Ryleigh and take her down to Eugene for the week, so we can focus on the hospital visits. So, here we are back in the PICU walking on glass again. It's about 5:30pm our time and his blood labs are looking better, he his on high oxygen flow and trying to fight back once again.
Steele is one tough dude, I am scared and praying he can pull through another round of heavy duty bull riding. Hang in there bud, we love you to pieces!
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