Recovery Part 1: PICU

2/12 Recovery Day 2:

8:20pm Overall, today went pretty smoothly. Abby didn't require any hefty pain meds and kept her feeds down until one big puke this evening. After running some fluids this afternoon, Abby's labs came back improved enough to let her move to the PCU (progressive care unit - similar to TCC for the Cinci folks). We're still waiting on a room up there, but it sounds like it will be a much more comfortable environment for all of us with a slightly elevated level of care from the regular neuro unit. Abby's doing a few other minor things that still require some focused attention, but hopefully moving will give us the chance to establish a sense of normalcy.

12:00pm Abby's labs came back a little wonky this morning, most likely due to all of yesterday's vomiting, and they want to get her numbers back in check before moving her out of the ICU. They ran some potassium and phosphorus this morning and are upping her IV fluids to help get her electrolytes back where they need to be. They'll recheck her labs this afternoon, and if all looks good, then there hopefully won't be anything else keeping us in here. Abby is still not waking up a whole lot, and now that her eyes are swollen shut, it's hard to tell how alert she is. She tolerated a little of her Real Food Blends this morning, and we'll try a little more this afternoon.

7:50am Although Aberdeen's vomiting picked up again yesterday evening, on the whole, last night went much better than the previous night. She didn't have any major apnea issues and kept her feeds down once they got ahead of her pain management. Fingers crossed we move back to the neuro floor today! She is getting more and more swollen by the hour, which is pretty pitiful, but an expected part of the healing process after having half of your skull removed, reshaped, and put back together. We'll see if she wakes up a little more today, but at this point I'm glad that she's getting some good rest and not requiring respiratory support outside of her normal CPAP routine. :)


2/11 Recovery Day 1:

4:30pm It sounds like she'll be spending tonight in the ICU due to concerns about last night's apneic episodes. She's been awake a little bit, and is already being ornery enough to tell me no. She's made it pretty clear that she wants to hold our hands, but otherwise be left alone. Hopefully tonight will be less frustrating and provide clarity on whether or not she's ready to move tomorrow.

1:00pm Things are going a little more smoothly now. They started Abby on some Zofran and better pain meds and her vomiting has subsided. She has kept a little food and her meds down, which is good. Everyone seems pretty happy with how she's doing overall, and it's still the plan to move to the neuro unit at some point today.

8:15am Abby is doing ok. She is retching and vomiting bile quite a bit, and we really haven't had much success getting her fed because of it. She was on her normal CPAP settings overnight, but because of the incision placement, we can't fit her mask on her head very well at the moment. It's super leaky, and between that and all of the narcotics, Abby is having a lot of apneic episodes an hour. A lot a lot. Her respiratory rate has been quite low, but thankfully her oxygen saturations have been great. Jameson took the night shift in the PICU, and while ICUs are never fun, it sounds like last night was particularly unfun. The set-up in here is not as private as the CVICU, it's extremely crowded, and we're having to do a lot of the work. We're used to being in charge of Aberdeen's care, but not in an ICU, which is extremely frustrating. Abby has still been pretty sleepy, and I'm not sure she's getting much quality rest right now with the madness of this ICU. Hopefully things improve throughout the day and we can get back to the neuro floor pronto.