Day 14: April 20, 2012

Day 14                                                                                                    Written Apr 20, 2012 7:11pm

Dallas had a much better night last night. He was up quite a bit, but it wasn't due to pain (most of the time). He would ask for things like his Chapstick, a drink, reading a book to him, just the little things. His first night off the ventilator went really well, all things considered. Dallas also asked for me or his daddy to lay in bed with him, to sleep with him. It was the hardest thing to tell him we couldn't right now. He just wants to be comforted, to snuggle with his parents, and he can't; it's something that he doesn't understand.

Dallas has started to get his appetite back. Today he has eaten applesauce, jello, had apple juice, sprite, and a chocolate milkshake. It is wonderful to see him eating again, even if it is just a little bit. He is still getting his feeds as well for nourishment, so he is getting plenty of calories, protein, etc for healthy healing. That also contributes to the fact that he isn't very hungry.

Dallas hasn't asked for his pain medication very often today, which is a good sign that he is at least tolerating it, at a level that I am sure most of us couldn't even imagine. I say that because he is the type that will wait until he is in excruciating pain before asking; as there have been times when the nurses had to administer his pain medicine due to his blood pressure and heart rate rising so high, they knew he was in pain. But as I said, he is tolerating everything very well for someone in his condition, especially considering he is only five.

He has been running a low grade fever, on and off all night, and throughout the day. It has peaked around 103, but they have managed to keep it below 101 most of the day; as it hovers around 100. We have also noticed that he is getting hot flashes and chills more often. I would assume this is due to the lack of skin in areas, so he doesn't have the protection we have.

The surgery team came in and explained the plans for Monday again. As of right now, surgery is scheduled for 7am Monday morning, but that could change before then. We will know, for sure, Sunday afternoon on his scheduled time. We have been advised that he will be coming back to PICU afterwards because they plan on keeping him on a ventilator for a day or two after surgery.

Today Dallas was scheduled to move to the intermediate floor (in between PICU and the pediatric floor), but at the last minute, one of the doctors advised against it. It is still planned to have him move tomorrow to the intermediate floor, but we are hoping he will be able to stay here in PICU.

We believe he is associating having his bed moved, to going to surgery. When they said they were going to move his bed, he squinted his eyes, saying "I don't want to go". This has been a very traumatic experience for him, one we wish we could erase from his memory. Travis said that he will be speaking with the anesthesiologist, asking if they can begin sedation in his room, so that by the time they take him down to the OR he won't know what's going on. Hopefully this can be done, please pray that it can.

We are continuing to see improvements in Dallas' condition and thank the Lord daily for all he doing for him. We are also so very thankful for the wonderful comments Dallas has received, as well as all the prayers.
Please continue to keep him in your thoughts and pray for a speedy recovery.