Wednesday, March 14, 2012

New life in the CCU

Jensen is adjusting to life in the CCU. His mommy and daddy are working on it ;)  Its definitely a different atmosphere. The goal of the CCU is to get you ready to go home with your little one...there are varying opinions on how to do this. Some of our nurses will let us 'work at our own pace' and take over care when we are ready. Other nurses expect us to do much more. We are loving having more freedom and time with him, but it can be overwhelming.

Jensen's achievements for the day: morphine weaned again, Lasix spaced out to only twice a day, held O2 sats at 1L for the entire day, and had a consult with speech. He was able to take about 5 ml from a bottle today. He still has trouble swallowing but has improved since yesterday. Tomorrow an ENT will see him and he will have a swallow study on Friday. This is where they use barium and video his swallowing to track where everything goes. They will also assess any vocal cord damage; he is getting louder but his cry is still very hoarse. Our attending cardio mentioned getting a G tube for Jensen instead of the NG. The G tube is surgically placed and goes directly into his stomach. It is a more permanent option than the NG and is used for babies that are at risk for aspiration during oral feeds. Jeremy and I are not thrilled about this idea and think this cardio is jumping the gun a little. We really feel like if Jensen is given a chance, he will improve his feeding enough to avoid a G tube (and hopefully an NG). I'm turning into one of those "mama bear" heart moms that I was warned about ;) I know what my little guy is capable of and I'm going to make sure he has every opportunity to shine (and eat!).

In other news, Jensen's very first friend Christian was discharged today! While we will miss having his family around, we were happy to see them go =) Yay Christian!

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