It's 3am, I must be lonely

Actually, it's only around 2am, but I always kind of liked that Matchbox 20 song...so, I'm not lonely either, little Brigsy is resting comfortably next to me. He is doing well - all his stats remain good and they are keeping him knocked out to give the little bugger some time to heal. We've confirmed he has a very fast metabolism like his daddy since he breaks through the pain meds and sedatives in less than an hour when they are supposed to last 3-4. They have him on 1 mg of Ativan (basically Valium) every hour if needed. This is bigger than the dose I was prescribed to take as needed this week to calm me down!! Hopefully tomorrow we can take out the breathing tube and we can give him something to eat and he'll start getting back to his old dancin' self. I'm really starting to miss his little personality. Every time he wakes up, he reaches for me and the look in his eyes is so sad, but I know he's getting stronger every hour and I can't wait to hold him finally!! I'm putting a picture of him dancing in hallway here before his operation :)

A big thanks again to Mary and Julie for their visits, and Mary Karen for dinner. Thanks to Katrina and Lynnie for some goodies that arrived at home today. Thanks also Laura for the balloons. In a rare moment of half clarity, Briggs reached for them and we helped him hold one for a few seconds. Hopefully that gave him a smile inside :)

We're about to change the bandage (actually I have nothing to do with it) - I wonder how it looks after being opened twice. I won't post any pictures of that - we'll leave that to the Discovery Channel.

Briggs' Little Pre-Operation Dance

Stable for Now

Briggs is stable now, but needs LOTS of drugs to sedate and paralyze him, otherwise he is MAD, HURTING and/or HUNGRY. In a few moments of semi-clarity, he pointed at the door. It made me happy to see him communicating, but said that he was telling me he wanted to leave. Here is a picture of him trying to suck his thumb with his favorite blanky. The breathing tube makes it a little tricky! You'll see he has new bandaged on his sternum because the surgery last night was a repeat procedure albeit unplanned. Also, a picture of Miller visiting with us in the ICU.

The neurology team came to assess Briggs as best they could given his sedated state. They felt that whatever they were able to test appeared normal. His other metrics are stable or normal as far as we've been told. When/if they extubate tomorrow will be the real test b/c that's when he'll be most uncomfortable and un-medicated. Briggs is quite the topic of discussion in the ICU today. Dr. Hanley said in his thousands of cases, he's never had a child tear a suture out like this from thrashing around. Briggs the Bruiser.

Mary Speiser and Julie Nelson have been a huge help in providing shoulders to lean on, and giving us a break occasionally. We have been so lucky to have so many friends and family members helping out. A huge thanks to Mary Karen Lundh who scrambled in to the hospital last night when Briggs went into surgery and stuck with us through the whole thing. Thanks MK!

We also had a special visit from Dr. Simpson, a family friend, interventional cardiologist, and professor at Stanford Medical school. JBS is quite the man in cardiology, and all of the doctors knew who he is...so they gave the straight scoop and it was great to have his input.

We will keep you posted as things progress...

NEED LOTS OF PRAYERS NOW

Too crazy for pictures right now. We had a scary, scary night - probably the worst night of our lives. As I wrote earlier, Briggs was MAD and HUNGRY, being the strong guy he his. I kept asking for more sedatives and/or painkillers, but they were conservative despite my warnings that he will try to GET OUT if he doesn't get something to eat (and you can't pick him up to soothe him). Technically you have to wait 6 or more hours after being extubated before eating. Finally Billy convinced them to give him food and while he went to get the formula, Briggs sat up, thrashed around on his tummy and had to be restrained. That's when LOTS of blood starting flowing from his chest tube. They told us to get out and that they were calling our surgeon, Dr. Hanley. Thankfully, Dr. Hanley was still here (midnight) and they ended up doing emergency surgery in hospital room to stop the bleeding - there was not enough time to even go to an OR. So, they opened him back up, but the bleeding was so bad that his blood pressure was dangerously low for several minutes. They couldn't put new blood in faster than his blood was leaving. THANKFULLY, he did not die but now we have other potential complications. He is reintubated and we have to wait to see how he comes out today - there's a chance that there could be multiple organ damage, including the lungs, kindney, brain, etc. It seems like he's peeing well (hopefully the kidney is good) and his liver numbers look okay in the blood, not sure about the lungs as he's still intubated and we'll wait to get an exam this morning about his brain from the neurologist. A far cry from our smooth surgery and day yesterday. Up until then, the plan was to send us to a "real" non-ICU room today and then maybe home in the next two. Please pray for his full recovery and his comfort. He is so uncomfortable!! But, we almost lost him and thankfully he is still with us. What a fighter.

Good Night Thursday

Briggs has been moaning and very uncomfortable. He kicked off his ankle lines and generally is not happy. They have been afraid to give him any painkillers that might affect is blood pressure and respiration, but finally they agreed to give him Versed (in is picture) which helped him settle down quite a bit. Now we just have to keep him happy for four more hours until we can give him just a little bit to eat, which is what he really wants. It's been almost 24 hours without food and he's getting MAD! They don't let you eat in case there are any complications that would force you to go back into the Operating Room.

Good News, but kinda sad...

It was finally time to extubate Briggs, which is a huge milestone here and quite early! It means MAYBE we'll got to a non-ICU hospital floor tomorrow. His recovery is going so great and he is such a trooper! Once he was extubated, he seemed very uncomfortable, so they gave him morphine and it's not working. So now, since he can't really cry loudly after intubation, he moans with tears running down his cheeks. It's very sad and hopefully he will find some comfort soon. If not, I'll just ask for the morphine myself!! Here's a picture of Julie and I waiting for Briggs to be extubated (THANK YOU JULIE FOR DINNER!!!), and more pictures of pre- and post-extubation. He's SUCH A TROOPER! Please pray for his comfort.

Waiting for him to wake up

Briggs is doing well so far. He is still on the ventilator, but is waking up here and there. He clearly doesn't like having the tube down his throat and coughs a bit which seems more like a hiccup with the tube in. He is also annoyed by the IV lines in his foot and tries to kick it off. Thankfully he won't remember any of this. The nurses are very nice and paient with our million questions and have been explaining everything they do and give to him.

Right now Briggs has: 1-breathing tube to the ventilator, 2- central line catheter, 3-temporary pacing wires in case he has any transient heart block, 4-two separate IV lines for fluids and drugs, 5-an arterial line for delivery of drugs and monitoring, 6-a chest tube for drainage of blood from around his heart, 7- a foley catheter for urine, and 8-ekg electrodes. Wow, that's a lot of wires!

The nurses think he will be awake enough to extubate tonight sometime. We'll post more as things progress.

He's Stable, Still Asleep

Lost of wires coming from the little guy

Briggs is still asleep, altough he's starting to break through. This should be interesting - I've heard this is the hardest part. Once he wakes up, they will try to extubate him to make sure he can breathe on his own. This is generally when kids are frantic, can't be comforted and want to pull all the wires out while gagging on the breathing tube. I hope it all goes quickly and smoothly and we can post a picture of his sweet face without any tubes in the mouth. Anyway, there's talk that they will try to do this tonight at some point.