Did I Hear You Correcly?

The last few days have been exhausting for Lee and me. But they have been even more exhausting for Cory who has been in his hospital bed trying his best to fight the bacteria that is running through his body. He has a little crater (as I like to call it) at the very top of his surgery incision which is constantly draining fluid. They tell me that it is some of the infection working its way out. They tell me that it is good to see all this very yucky stuff oozing out of my son. As Shrek would say… “Better an outy than an inny!”

They are treating Cory as if the bacteria is in his bones and heart. Since it is too soon after his surgery date, there is no conclusive way to tell if the bacteria is actually in his bones. Better safe than sorry. This means that Cory will have to be on IV antibiotics for 4 to 6 weeks. It is too soon to know if we will have to remain in the hospital during the treatments, or if we will be able to take him home and have a nurse come to the house to administer the drugs. I’m really hoping he’ll be able to come home.

Cory has had a rough couple of days. The Respiratory Therapists had Cory pretty much breathing on his own, with the ventilator (breathing tube) only helping him if he wasn’t getting enough volume of air in his lungs. This sounds good, but it was really difficult for Cory to cough and expel the mucous from his lungs with the tube stuck down his throat. The nurses had to help Cory by suctioning him. They would insert a small tube down his breathing tube to suction up all the bad stuff. But most of the times when they did this, Cory would have an “episode”. His sats, as well as his heart rate at times, would drop dangerously low. Cory would turn blue and gag and a whole team of people would have to come running in to help Cory breathe properly again. The first few times he had these episodes his sats would just drop really low. But after a few days he started the turning blue thing. The first time Lee and I saw this we turned white. I have never before seen Cory in that state. Watching the monitor, hoping his sats and heart rate would return to normal, and praying that the doctors and nurses knew what they were doing was pure torture. It brought us to our knees more than a few times.

Every morning I would go to the hospital for doctors’ rounds. And every morning I was told the same thing. “He is critical but stable.” I had a couple of bad days. On Sunday morning I went in to see Cory. I knew that I wouldn’t see any changes in him, but I really really wanted to. When I walked into his room and saw that he was the same as the day before my heart sank. I cried and cried. Monday was even a worse day as he had a bad experience when he was getting x-rayed. He was not handled as gently as he should have been and as a result had a pretty bad episode. The x-ray tech was lucky that there were other people around as I’m not sure she would have made it out of Cory’s room with her arms still intact if we had been alone. If you thought I was a Momma Bear during the last hospital stay, this time I became a big ole mean Grizzly Momma Bear. It took me over an hour and a half to calm down after that incident.

Day after day Cory was getting clinically better, but still no changes on the outside. He was a little less puffy in his face, and moving his limbs a little bit, but I wanted more. Yesterday (Tuesday) I was told that Cory’s breathing tube would hopefully be removed the next day. I was soooo excited! I knew that my little fighter would get much better much more quickly once he was extubated. All day long I would sit with Cory, singing to him, telling him stories, and watching “Days or Our Lives” if we got the chance. (Yes, Cory is a huge “Days” fan!) Then Lee would come in the late afternoon and sit with Cory while I went home to play with Molly. Lee’s Mom is staying with us and helping us out immensely with Molly. I’m not sure what we would be doing without her here. Thank you Donna!

Today Cory finally had his breathing tube removed. The removal went splendidly and everyone was thrilled with how well Cory was doing afterwards. He is now totally breathing on his own, with a little bit of oxygen to help him out. He is on about the same amount of oxygen that he was on at home. That is really good! He looks better. He looks pinker. He has a really sore throat right now, but that will pass in a couple of days. Hopefully tomorrow we will be able to try bottle feeding him instead of having him eat through the feeding tube inserted in his nose. I think it will be smooth sailing from this point on. Cory always does so much better with each tube or IV or line that they take out of or off of his body. And today I finally got to hold him and cuddle with him again. It’s been almost a week and it felt so good to have my baby in my arms again. I think he liked it too.

Every night before I go to bed I call the PICU and talk to Cory’s nurse to see how Cory is doing. Every night I pray that God will help my son get better. Most nights I hear that Cory has had a couple of (one night he had five) “episodes”. Most nights I have to hear about how my son turned blue and that his sats went down to less than 30. Most nights I pray that Cory will make it through the night. Tonight when I called I wasn’t sure if I heard his nurse correctly. She told me that Cory was having a fantastic night and that he was sleeping soundly. I asked her to clarify. “You mean he didn’t have any episodes? You mean he hasn’t turned blue? You mean he really had a good night?” The nurse chuckled and assured me that Cory was in fact having a great night. I think tonight I may actually have a great night too.