Day 9 - Saturday morning update

Saturday, 5/11/13 @ 9:00 am

Day 9 and he is still in Shock-Trauma ICU. He is more awake today. He had a mean nurse last night and wrote a note to me asking if we can please make sure he doesn't have her again. Everyone here as been wonderful until this nurse. We are meeting with the charge nurse today. Before I left his room last night, he wrote me a note about her and he said that he was just going to keep his eyes closed and pray when he couldn't sleep. The other families in the waiting room told me to check on him during the night, but she wouldn't let me come back. She said, "He's sleeping, let him sleep!" The other nurses always said, "He's sleeping, but feel free to take a peek and see that he is okay." Bobby, a man who sleeps three chairs down from me and has a brother in the bed near Samuel had a different nurse that allowed him back there. He would go back just to check on Samuel.

This morning we have a good nurse again. It's amazing what a difference that makes! Samuel failed the breathing test this morning. His doctor prescribed something for respiratory failure. They will retest him again tomorrow. He will not be taken off the ventilator today. Pray he can pass the breathing test tomorrow so they can extubate him. He continues on TPN lipids for nutrition and they will be adding tube feeds to his diet today and try to let his tummy do its job.

I talked with the STICU doctor that gives the reports each morning and asked why they didn't do the procedures they told me they would be doing during surgery. He said his insides looked so much better in just the two days between surgeries that they felt we had another option, at least for now. They also said that it would just be more tubes etc that would complicate wearing the brace for his fractured spine. His tummy pain is rough because those muscles are so stretched to try to close the fascia. Today they are getting him a "binder" to support his abdomen so that he will try to take some deep breaths and cough.

He's still fighting pneumonia. Getting him off the vent should help with all that. He is making progress, but it is coming slower than we had hoped. Having Haley here has really boosted his spirit. I even saw him smile once this morning.