Rough day

Gerald with nurse Laurel
I promised her the night before she took care of Gerald that he won't give her a hard time if she takes care of him. I apologized that it turned out this way. To nurse LAUREL Thank you very much for your hard work, and for taking such a good care of my boy.

Gerald from the OR with breathing tube.

Gerald had a rough night last Wednesday night. He was irritable and seems he was in pain. I'm always asking his nurses that he might need some more pain medicine, and they always grant my request. Then finally yesterday (Thursday , Feb 12, 2009) he was not feeling well than I expected too. He was still grunting and couldn’t find a comfortable position in his crib. My nurse was very concerned about him. Although she had another patient to take care of, she make sure that Gerald meets his needs. Around 11am yesterday, I gave him water through the syringe. He sucked it very fast and asked for more. I gave him water probably about 60 ml which is not very much that he used to drink. But anyway, the last 10ml that he drunk he coughed really hard, and he could hardly breath for few seconds. His saturation when down below 60’s. Then I laid him down on his back and few minutes later his nurse changed the dressing on his chest ( he had a chest tube days before yesterday and also the suture opened quite a bit). While the couple nurses cleaning his wound, I heard Gerald harsh breathing. I told the nurse that he doesn’t sound good to me. So his nurse Laurel decided to suction him, my husband Ralph assisted her. After they had finished suctioning we saw blood oozing from his wound. In less than a minute the gauze that was covering GJ’s wound soaked in blood. It was really scary and his nurse was scared too. She said she never seen this things happened before. The nurse called the on call doctor here in PCTICU. Dr. Lisa Grimalde checked GJ’s wound and her opinion was to suture the open wound again. GJ’s primary surgeon Dr. David Cleveland came up too his room and checked GJ’s wound, and he decided to bring him back in the operating room to see what is going on inside his chest and also to suture his wound again. The procedure took probably 2 hours plus the anesthesia range from 11/2 hours. After the procedure was done I spoke to the surgeon and he said that Gerald’s suture in his sternum came apart from top to bottom. Also, they took a sample from the sternum and send to the laboratory for culture, and there is a bacteria (unknown yet) found. Right now he is on the antibiotic and still intubated through the night, which gives me the opportunity to get enough sleep. Right now he is currently lying on his bed sedated. Doctor’s order to remove his breathing tube sometime today.

We will be here in the hospital for a while. So I am just glad that I didn’t take any classes this semester.

Gerald will be alright, its just it take him a while to get heal.