Alexander's life 3-8-06

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 08, 2006 09:02 AM, CST
He's closed!!! Dr D worked for 4 hours to get the skin sewn together and it's very very tight, he said it was the toughest close they've ever had but he refused to give up. It was so tight they had to put in smaller chest tubes and take out the pacemaker wires (which are no larger than stereo wires) because there was just no room for anything not directly needed. (He's never USED his pacer, it's just been there just in case).

Last night they started chest irrigation since on the 28th of Feb they grew some bacteria from his chest culture. Unfortunately that's not working very well since the new chest tubes are so tiny, the fluid isn't able to flow back out of them and it's instead leaking out his chest (this child sure loves to leak!) Good news, the dialysis is now working properly.

He's doing good considering. He's been pretty stable. They had to knock him out though because he was really fighting the vent this morning and it was making his heart work harder which they don't want right now. This first 24-48 hours are pretty rocky and they just want to ride it out as easily as they possibly can.