Monday, October 5

From midnight to around 8'ish Rex was able to breathe on his own. In the morning they started to take him off of the sedative to get him ready for extubation. Unfortunately, he was in so much pain that he was unable to sustain his breathing and they decided to sedate him again and try later. It is a very tricky balance between keeping his pain managed and knocking him out completely.

He started to have some trouble breathing and keeping his oxygen saturation levels up. They put him back on the ventilator and was given a blood transfusion to help bring his levels back up. They put him back on lasix to help remove excess fluids and the respiratory therapist is also given him breathing treatments and working to release some of the gunk stuck in his lungs.

Dr. Smith ordered a CT scan of his back to see if there is anything else causing this unbearable back pain. He has been experiencing much worse pain since last Sunday night, a few hours after we came to the hospital. A new air comfort mattress arrived and should be set up later this evening. This will hopefully alleviate some of the pain. The doctor also ordered a bunch of cultures to check for the possibility of additional infections. Lots going on today and thankfully Rex was sedated for almost all of it.

I won't know much more until after all of the results come in sometime tomorrow. I suspect they will also do heart biopsy tomorrow to check for rejection. Those are pretty routine and he hasn't had one in two weeks. I do feel so much better since Dr. Smith is back in town. She is very thorough and knows Rex well. Rex had an amazing nurse today. She was very busy tending to Rex's needs and still took the time to explain everything to me and was very tender with Rex. Nursing is a tough job and I so appreciate each one who has cared for Rex this last week. Please pray that the tests will reveal anything that could be a problem and that this pain would go away. Pray that he would have a peaceful nights rest.

Thank you,
Janelle