9/2 Update

I'm a rock star! (pic)

Patrick had a really good day. He was smiley and playful. He spiked another temp. They determined that neither Tylenol nor Motrin alone takes care of it, but both together seem to work, so now protocol is both at the same time. Still, they are flummoxed about the cause.  I spoke to the cardiologist who is rounding this week and she said that generally teething fevers are much lower and don't reach 39.1C. She was going to check on an infectious disease consult.

Vest therapy! (pic)

He started vest therapy today. It's a vest attached to air pumps that vibrates the chest in order to clear the lungs. It tends to work much better than the manual chest percussion therapy they had been doing. We weren't sure how he was going to react, but he LOVED it.  He smiled and giggled the whole time.  He got sad when it slowed down and gave the nurse a dirty look and fussed when she took the vest off. He is going to get it three times a day and, hopefully, it will help clear up the issue with his left lung.  Thank goodness he's finally getting some therapy he enjoys!

Developmentally, he seems to have figured out object permanence to the point that he understands I always come back. It's been such a relief because not he rarely cries when I leave. He's also correcting his balance more when sitting up, and working on sitting up himself when he's laying down. Today, I showed him how to spin the ball on the yellow guitar and he copied me and made it work. Each time he managed to make it light up and play music, he looked up at me and gave me the biggest grin.

Taggy (pic)

He gave us all a scare this evening, when about 5 minutes before the docs came in for rounds, he started getting fussy and then became profusely diaphoretic. He drenched his bed clothes, and we could see little droplets all over his head and face. He looked miserable. He wasn't running a temp (thank goodness) and all his sats looked good, but his heart rate had spiked to the 180s. He was still like that when the docs rounded, for which I was grateful because it's always hard to convey just how different he is sometimes. They gave him his oral dose of morphine early, in case it was withdrawal, but they also did a blood gas and took an x-ray.  In less than 15 minutes, he was back and smiling again. So, one the one hand, yay that it was nothing too serious, but boo that he's (again) addicted to morphine and they will have to adjust his weaning schedule.  I told him to quit messing with everyone's blood pressure and he just gave me his best smile and giggled. We are in trouble for sure!