Day 35: May 11, 2012

Day 35                                                                                                    Written May 11, 2012 8:08pm

Dallas slept much better last night, though I didn't get any sleep. Between his really low blood pressure and him not breating every breath on his own, I was pretty scared of falling asleep. There were a few times when he didn't sleep well, and he hallucinated a few times, but overall, he did very well. The hallucinations are concerning us and along with the tremmoring, it seems like he is going through withdrawl again.

Dallas was given Diaulid for pain, written for as needed once every hour. Well we found out that one of his nurses had given him 7 doses in a 12 hour period. What really bothered us was that she didn't mention to us she was going to give it to him, and she didn't even ask him if he was in pain. Dallas will tell you if he's in pain and needs medication, so all that happened was that he was getting heavy narcotics for nothing, building up his tolerance level even higher. So far, the doctors want to rule out other things, but we know it's withdrawl.

They did another X-ray, showing signs of clearing.  They did a dressing change for Dallas, also changing his linens. Dr. Zeller (his surgeon) said that he is looking very good; and Dr. Mullnar (plastic surgeon) said his face was looking better and better. They said this is one of the best grafts they had seen. His facial grafts are taking really well. Hopefully Monday will be better news (as that's when they are taking him back to the OR to make sure his grafts have taken).

Dallas had his ventilator taken out today. He was terrified, as they had to cut the tape off the tube to take it out. It went really well though, even though it did cause him a little pain.

He's been breathing well so far, nothing they are concerned about. His blood pressure has dropped even lower, down to 76/29. They are concerned about that, but they thought it could be the Precedix and Klonodine patch, since essentially, they do the same thing.

Over the last few hours, Dallas' blood pressure has raised, almost back to normal. He is doing really well since being taken off the ventilator.

Dallas asked to have some Jello. So the nurse brought in some Strawberry jello for him. He took a couple of bites and they started his feeds back. About 15 minutes later, he started throwing up. It got all over his chest and shoulder, so we are praying that it isn't going to infect the grafted areas.

He's been shaking even more as well as going from hot to cold. Dallas also has a very blank look on his face. I know he's going through withdrawl from the Diaulid he was given, especially since it wasn't needed.

We are hoping Dallas gets some rest tonight. Donna said she is going to stay with Dallas, so Travis and I will go back to the Ronald McDonald house for some rest.