Kid stuff

Tyler finally got a good night's sleep. His pain is pretty much those pesky intercostals, some topical pain at the surgery site, and the sore throat. Thank you to everyone for your sore throat suggestions. Not that it matters too much, but it turns out the sore throat

Path to rehab

Things are moving fast over here, Tyler may start rehab as soon as this Thursday(!). We meet with the physiatrist (fiz-EYE-uh-trist) tomorrow and he will give us the full rundown of the transfer process to rehab. Once we have that, I can start planning for the type of help we

#GTFOICU, or Home Sweet Home (sort of)

Tyler slept just okay, but for great reasons, he’s in a new place! The EMTs picked him up at 9pm last night and what a change! First of all, the sound: Kaiser is so quiet. Granted, he is no longer on the ICU floor, but still, the vibe is

Escape!

Much to say, but the biggest takeaway is: We escaped the ICU! The order came late today, but at 9pm, EMTs came and got Tyler and he is now resting comfortably at Kaiser.  More tomorrow!

The anxiety of pain/the pain of anxiety

The first goal today was to remove his NG tube. It appears the ileus is resolving, but we are still taking  . . . [Ed., this is where I fell asleep in the middle of typing]  . . . we are still taking drinking (and eventually eating) very slow. The biggest challenge is pain and anxiety

Progress!

I slept in, finally. Tyler has made great progress since yesterday. His lungs are clearing up, and he passed 💩💩💩overnight. Hooray! By the time I arrived, he was lucid and sitting in the cardiac chair. He managed to get a little sleep last night, and they even removed his catheter.

We need to GTFO of here!

Hey folks - I am absolutely cooked tonight so this one will be short. Tyler’s gut saw some movement for the first time in a week and we all rejoiced. 💩🎉 His lungs, according to the SICU attending look “AMAZING!” meaning, they are clearing up. Turns out he just had

Putting the “dude” in extubated

Putting the “dude” in extubated - @Tim Lynch in the WhatsApp Shoutouts I got the notification around 4:30 that Tyler had been placed on spontaneous breathing and was handling it well. This was the step we’ve been waiting for!   By 8:55am, he was extubated and demanding justice

10 days, 13 hours, 27 minutes.

Today was slightly up from last night, but not a lot of change. I was up early again to join morning rounds. Each day is a reset, so the docs start with a summary of new or resolved issues from the previous 24 hours, his vitals, and his pain management.

The intubation continues

I attended rounds this morning and he has a new neurosurgery team this week and they're fantastic. The big issue at the time was of course, his GI and the ileus. Unfortunately, the ileus didn't improve overnight and so the draining and resting continued. Despite being