Wednesday, September 07, 2011

Cardio Returns

Aaron had another chest film today. It showed another slight improvement over yesterday's. Unfortunately, his oxygen needs have been creeping up the last two days. Aaron was having a hard time saturating today and was staying at 100% oxygen. During rounds today our Attending decided to get a cardiac consult. He is concerned that Aaron's large PDA is causing too much of a problem with his lungs. Aaron also had another eye exam today. His eyes aren't much different from last time but the eye doc said he wouldn't need them checked again for 6-8 weeks. I hoping for the 8! He asked where we lived and said he would most likely see us in his office near where we live. I told him I wasn't going to hold my breath that we would see him there.

I decided to stay to speak with the Cardio people. I feel like sometimes things get lost in translation if I solely rely on someone else to fill me in after a consult. After rounds were complete our N.P. called over and requested someone to come over. She spoke with a fellow. She asked if he knew the Bjarnason baby, he said no but asked her to spell the last name. She said, "Sure, its B J". At which point the fellow said, "Wait a second I know exactly who you are taking about, I'll be over in about 20 minutes". And he was! I spoke with him as did our Attending. The Attending feels like they should send him to the CAT Lab (or CAS Lab, something like that). The fellow examined Aaron and said he would be back shortly with the Attending.

About and hour later they both returned. It didn't sound as if they wanted to take him over, especially as he is fighting the staph infection. The Cardiac Attending ordered an extensive echo first thing in the morning. They left shortly after. 20 minutes later our Attending walked back in and said he just received a text that Aaron has been scheduled to be transferred to the Cardiac unit on the 22nd to have a balloon placed in his PDA. This will tell them if ligating his PDA or putting a band around it would help with this Pulmonary Hypertension. He'll be sent to the PICU, the cardiac version of the NICU. They are waiting until the 22nd to give him a chance to kill off the staph before heading over. Once we are transferred there we are not sure if we will be returning to the U. Usually if you have private insurance once you move, you stay, so we will see what happens.

After all the excitement we flipped Aaron over to his belly. He had started to spit up his food again and still had not come down on his oxygen. A few minutes after turning him over he saturated much better and we were finally able to turn the oxygen down. He has been extremely sensitive to noise these last couple days so they moved our little neighbor out today. Hopefully he starts to feel better soon.

1 comments:

Sant Family said...

I think the PICU is the pediatrics ICU. They can't put Aaron in the NICU because after a certain number of days elsewhere, they won't take them there or something. At least that was the rule when we were at PCMC NICU. It is so frustrating when there are no clear answers and solutions. So far it seems like Aaron has made quite a name for himself and it sounds like the Doctors and staff are doing the best they can. And snaps to you, Denise, for somehow managing to balance all this and be Aaron's advocate.

Again, you guys are in my prayers.