Day 35 in the ccu, surgery 20.
During surgery this morning, they looked at the wounds on Derek's back. The wounds had been from the original blast. At first, they were determined to be stage 3, with one at stage 2. They thought they were getting better, so they were downgraded to stage 3 and 2. There is one that is not getting better. They are determining it to be "unstageable," but if they were forced to stage it, it would be stage 4. Not.Good.
The bed that he had was specially ordered to help him with this. It is a wonderful bed that circulates air around him, but it wasn't enough. So the doctors decided to order him a "boat bed." If a regular bed is the Ford of beds, the bed he has had is the BMW of beds, this new bed is the Bentley of beds.
This new bed does everything the bed he has now does, plus more. He should have it tonight or tomorrow. An army guy in a boat bed. And he said he joined the army because he didn't want to be stuck on a big boat! Ha!
Surgery went great. The wound vac on the right leg was removed! Hooah! The left leg is still showing signs on bacteria. Not so great, but we'll get there. The right arm looked good and was cleared by ortho for the flap for whenever plastics felt comfortable enough with the stage of the infections to complete the procedure. The infection is not gone, but it is getting there, so by the end of next week or the following week, plastics should be ready.
They will be doing another CT in a few days to look at those abcesses. His white blood cell count was 27.9 in the morning and spiked to 30.8 by the afternoon, but his temp was normal all day. They believe it might be the abcesses in the abdomen. If it is, they need to let them mature, and then general surgery will go in and get them out. He had his stitches removed from his stomach today, so more surgery on the ab is NOT what we wanted to hear. I really hope the antibiotics work and surgery is not needed.
His heart rate was scary high today. It hovered in the high 130's, favoring 137, all day. He was tachy most of the day. Because the echo showed no signs of damage or strain as of yet, they gave him fluids and are watching it carefully. His nurse was so wonderful today. LTJG Tom Diggs, and kept such a close eye on him.
I have been so lucky. I hear others complain about nursing and doctor problems, but that is not my experience. I had one bad experience, and one ditsy experience, but everyone else has been wonderful. I pray this continues.
They tried Derek on the trach collar again. Unfortunately, it only lasted four minutes. He just isn't strong enough. His CPAP was reduced from 60% support to 40% support at 5/12.
Derek told me so many times that he loved me and didn't want me to leave him. I told him I wasn't going anywhere. He begged me to take him home, and I just told him I wish I could, and that I would as soon as the doctors said it was okay.
What broke my heart was how much he wants food. Lt Tom was concerned about restarting his tube feeds after surgery because the J-tube did not feel right, so he talked to Dr. Dan about an x-ray. The x-ray looked okay so the tube feedings started again, but it's not filling his belly and he is not satisfied.
Derek was enjoying his Sprite and suctioning it out, and he finished the bottle. He asked Krystina to get him another, but she said one minute, because she didn't want to leave him just then because he was so cute, and she wanted to see his blue eyes. He turned his head and hid his face so she couldn't see his eyes! Brat!
A funny story from a week ago was when Krystina asked Sean to bring her her pocketbook from the Lodge. What do you think the cops thought when they saw a teenage boy walking with an oversized, bright pink woman's pocketbook? What do you think a teenage boy thought when he looked behind him and saw two police cars following him very slowly? He started walking very fast to get into the hospital building before they stopped in, his heart pounding the whole time! Poor Sean!
Derek had a lot of visitors today, but he was quite tired from surgery, so he slept most of the day. Kiki, Kellina, Sean and Kevin were all around, but all Derek really cared about was his Sprite.
Hopefully tomorrow will be a quite day of rest, relaxation and healing in his boat bed! Anchors away!
During surgery this morning, they looked at the wounds on Derek's back. The wounds had been from the original blast. At first, they were determined to be stage 3, with one at stage 2. They thought they were getting better, so they were downgraded to stage 3 and 2. There is one that is not getting better. They are determining it to be "unstageable," but if they were forced to stage it, it would be stage 4. Not.Good.
The bed that he had was specially ordered to help him with this. It is a wonderful bed that circulates air around him, but it wasn't enough. So the doctors decided to order him a "boat bed." If a regular bed is the Ford of beds, the bed he has had is the BMW of beds, this new bed is the Bentley of beds.
This new bed does everything the bed he has now does, plus more. He should have it tonight or tomorrow. An army guy in a boat bed. And he said he joined the army because he didn't want to be stuck on a big boat! Ha!
Surgery went great. The wound vac on the right leg was removed! Hooah! The left leg is still showing signs on bacteria. Not so great, but we'll get there. The right arm looked good and was cleared by ortho for the flap for whenever plastics felt comfortable enough with the stage of the infections to complete the procedure. The infection is not gone, but it is getting there, so by the end of next week or the following week, plastics should be ready.
They will be doing another CT in a few days to look at those abcesses. His white blood cell count was 27.9 in the morning and spiked to 30.8 by the afternoon, but his temp was normal all day. They believe it might be the abcesses in the abdomen. If it is, they need to let them mature, and then general surgery will go in and get them out. He had his stitches removed from his stomach today, so more surgery on the ab is NOT what we wanted to hear. I really hope the antibiotics work and surgery is not needed.
His heart rate was scary high today. It hovered in the high 130's, favoring 137, all day. He was tachy most of the day. Because the echo showed no signs of damage or strain as of yet, they gave him fluids and are watching it carefully. His nurse was so wonderful today. LTJG Tom Diggs, and kept such a close eye on him.
I have been so lucky. I hear others complain about nursing and doctor problems, but that is not my experience. I had one bad experience, and one ditsy experience, but everyone else has been wonderful. I pray this continues.
They tried Derek on the trach collar again. Unfortunately, it only lasted four minutes. He just isn't strong enough. His CPAP was reduced from 60% support to 40% support at 5/12.
Derek told me so many times that he loved me and didn't want me to leave him. I told him I wasn't going anywhere. He begged me to take him home, and I just told him I wish I could, and that I would as soon as the doctors said it was okay.
What broke my heart was how much he wants food. Lt Tom was concerned about restarting his tube feeds after surgery because the J-tube did not feel right, so he talked to Dr. Dan about an x-ray. The x-ray looked okay so the tube feedings started again, but it's not filling his belly and he is not satisfied.
Derek was enjoying his Sprite and suctioning it out, and he finished the bottle. He asked Krystina to get him another, but she said one minute, because she didn't want to leave him just then because he was so cute, and she wanted to see his blue eyes. He turned his head and hid his face so she couldn't see his eyes! Brat!
A funny story from a week ago was when Krystina asked Sean to bring her her pocketbook from the Lodge. What do you think the cops thought when they saw a teenage boy walking with an oversized, bright pink woman's pocketbook? What do you think a teenage boy thought when he looked behind him and saw two police cars following him very slowly? He started walking very fast to get into the hospital building before they stopped in, his heart pounding the whole time! Poor Sean!
Derek had a lot of visitors today, but he was quite tired from surgery, so he slept most of the day. Kiki, Kellina, Sean and Kevin were all around, but all Derek really cared about was his Sprite.
Hopefully tomorrow will be a quite day of rest, relaxation and healing in his boat bed! Anchors away!
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