We've had an awesome day today!
This morning Baby Briggs had his surgery with Dr. Hanley. This is the family we met when we came for the tour of the CVICU. I went down to sit with them for a while and prayed with them. His surgery was successful and he is in the ICU right now. They were talking about extubating him tonight! Good job Briggs!
Drew got both chest tubes taken out this morning around 11:30. Yay! They also changed his dressing at the same time. He was a superstar, as usual. Today the hospital dog, Carly, came to visit and she helped Drew during his procedures. She even jumped up and laid on his bed.
Then his little buddy Tommy was here to visit and play. We enjoyed having lunch with Tommy and his parents outside in the non-annoying sunshine. The playroom wasn't open while Tommy was here, so we played games (Hi Ho Cherry-O and tetris and dinos) and visited the train downstairs instead. After they left Drew and Daddy and Grandma enjoyed some time in the play room, while I finally went back to Kathy's to take my shower.
Then it was time for Drew's physical therapy. Today the PT brought him a tricycle to ride. He was very excited and did three laps around the hospital corridors. He was going so fast we could barely keep up with him! It was great to see him so back to normal. It made my heart smile.
They identified the bacteria growing in Drew's incision and they are: lactococcus, streptococcus mitis, staphylococcus coag negative. Haven't taken the time to research these yet, but I will. The important thing is that all three can be treated with vancomycin so we will continue on that antibiotic and discontinue the Zosyn. They think we will need more than a 7 day course of antibiotics, but not sure if it will be 10 0r 14 days. They are also increasing potassium to three times a day, and it's oral and tastes nasty. They are decreasing the diuretics slowly. So basically we are hanging around playing in the playroom and taking IV antibiotics.
Right now we're back in Drew's room (our roommate just went home-yay!) and he is playing with Grandma. I am about to go pick up Ava and bring her back here to see Drew.
Drew's oxygen saturations at 100% this morning. I am sitll amazed by this!
Drew with Carly the dog
Drew and Tommy playing Hi Ho Cherry-O
Drew and Tommy at the train
In the play room
Drew riding his bike, with assistance from Grandma
31 comments:
God is so good. Amen.
Awesome Andrea.
Nice to see some steps in the right direction and am sooo relieved for you guys about the chest tubes, they must have been so uncomfortable.
Wish I could be closer and help somehow.
YAY for another good day! Seeing Drew smile makes my heart smile!
i'm glad he's doing better! Ü great job drew!
yay! so good to see drew not connected to anything, and with such genuine smiles. he and tommy are such cute little cheeseballs!
speaking of cheese, i looked up that lactococcus one and it IS used in cheese and buttermilk production! that conjures lots of gross images. it seems there are different variants though, so it's probably not the same one.
the coag negative one seems to be one of the better staphs to get, and the strep. mitis apparently comes from the mouth and Uri Geller, the fake psychic, says that his powers come from a strep m infection he had as a kid. sweet, drew will have fake psychic powers!!
at least two of the bacteria are associated with prosthetic valves or devices, so maybe they are just more common in people who get opened up for parts-surgery?
probably none of that is the research you will want to do, but they are things that i found interesting.
love you all, can't wait to come back to visit and then leave again so that drew will have a sudden burst of getting-better-ness so that he can avoid me!
Yay for good days! I love to hear that! Keep up the good work!
Love,
Samantha
My heart is grinning ear to ear, or valve to valve, as it may be.
- H
Yay, yay, yay! I'm so excited things are looking so great today. It won't be long now....
Hooray! I am all smiles right now. That is all such good news!
My prayers, love and hugs go out to all four of you.
Bekah
hi andrea. i just noticed your comment on my test blog. =P sorry for the super late response. i would've loved to be in a mini-support group while i was there. wish i read the test blog comment sooner. =P we were at preschool together, though, during my daughter's last day there. she was the one trying to play with drew's trains that day. =P here's the blog i do update. Ü
"Dear Drew
I hope you feel better. I liketed playing Hi Ho Cheerio wit you. I hope you feel better again. I hope someday soon you can come to church with me. One of the pictures of us was really funny and one was not so funny but cool. I had fun with you and the birds that were trying to come after me were funny. I hope they don't come after you tomorrow. Love Tommy"
Hi Guys
It was nice to see Drew first hand COMPLETELY different from when I saw him last Friday. The natural smiles and his willingness to get up and explore was AWESOME. We are so grateful we were able to all make it down as a family. Even though I have two huge blisters on my baby toe from our short walk. If I come back before you guys are able to come home I am bringing my tennis shoes.
Praying Praying Praying
Kristina
Wow, that smile is wonderful to see!!!! Praise God for His faithfulness. Patty/DeAnna's mom
What a blessing! He looks like a happy little boy. If he wasn't wearing a hospital gown, you wouldn't know anything was wrong! What a precious, strong, sweet, and courageous baby you have! God bless you all. Even in the midst of supporting each other, you have energy to support and pray with others. You're beautiful examples of God's love!
Great Job Drew! Love you guys!
I'm totally tearing up looking at those pictures. It's our happy little Drew! Hooray! Tommy- way to love on your pal! Kristina- way to sacrifice your pre-wedding feet for your friends.
Andrea, I know that you wish there were other ways, but I have no doubt that God is using Drew to teach his friends about compassion and a servant's heart. It's great they can learn this at such a young age!
Hope tomorrow is better and better.
our love and prayers...
Kristen
What an awesome God we have!
My heart is so happy for you guys!
Seeing those smiles on Drew's face made me smile.
We're so happy with you and for you! Yea, God! Thanks for letting us read and see the answers to our prayers!
Love,
K & L
I totally agree with Kristen... it's amazing to see how God is using the journey that you guys are on to impact others, especially Drew's little friends. His little buddy's have been changed for ever by watching Drew go through this and they are going to grow up being more loving and compassionate because of it. And praise God for no more tubes. He look like a completely different boy from last week. YAY!
Carly the dog is really cute (and what a great idea to have a dog help in the healing process.) Drew looks GREAT despite those yucky looking incision photos. Poor little guy. He looks like a happy 4 year old on his tricycle and playing with his friends! You sound ecstatic in your post. What a great day! Yay God!
Carrie
Seems like things have really turned a corner since I saw you on Monday. It's good to see him smiling and laughing and playing--being a kid. I know you were wondering if you'd ever see that again. What a relief. Hopefully things will remain relatively uneventful and the antibiotics will work their magic and you'll be back to your regular lives in no time... or a couple of weeks ;-)
xxoo
Suzanne
Hooray! Yay God!! I am so excited that Drew got his tubes out, has full oxygen, and is up and smiling and riding a bike. He is such a little miracle boy!! I echo what everyone else says about how inspiring Drew is. Others are just more eloquent than I am! See you tomorrow with a Lightning McQueen tricycle.....
yea! Im so glad that they have the cultures back and are starting the right medicines and hoping hat he heals very quickly! Drew is amazing! go drew go!! Yea! for getting the chest tubes out too! hopefully he feels much better with those out! Hope the chlyrothox stays in check so he wont need them back i think it is harder when they are older and get this. we will be praying for you all while you heal ! love wyndi steven and Izzy
More smiles, yay! I have a question- why can't he go home sooner? It seems like if he's off of everything but antibiotics and riding a tricycle he should be able to go home.
Smiles and tricycle rides, yay!!! Drew, you are amazing!
I love that there is a hospital dog. What a great idea!
Praying for another good day for you all!! xoxoxo
You guys! This is the most heart-warming thing to see -- I can only imagine how it blesses YOUR socks off to see your sweet boy looking like his "old" self! Praise God Almighty!
I will be smiling big all day today, thinking about these beautiful pictures and the video -- Oh the video of the bike ride -- absolutely delightful!
Bless you as your boy gets stronger each day!
Love you, Lori
Wow...3 laps around the corridors?! Drew definitely beats my post-procedure record of...1 lap. What a stud!
It's great to see the progress.
Carley the dog is so cool... I love that program so glad that drew got to experience it!
He looks great you guys... God is awesome.
Drew looks SO much happier compared to last week, or even a few days ago.
That's got to be a good sign that he's starting to feel back to normal-ish!
What a wonderful day! Praise God for progress!
Great job Drew!! We are all so happy for you. 100% oxygen sats--awesome, I still hold my breath everytime they take Vaughn's. Hope the weekend is good and continues to move in the right direction.
In our thoughts & prayers-
The Myers
Drew is so stinkin cute!!
Wow, I just saw that infection picture...
OMG... so scary...
infections scare me to death.
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