If you read my post explaining the history of Joshua's and Jenna's hospital visits, the events of today are at once unbelievable, ironic, troubling, and heartening. Yes, disparate words for a day with disparate emotions.
It's 1:00 in the morning right now and I just got home from the hospital. As I posted this morning, last night was not a good one for Isaac or Janel. After more X-rays today, and much consultation with other doctors, the pediatrician at Trenton-Mercer County hospital decided to transfer Isaac to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, NJ. The scenario leading up to the transfer was almost identical to Jenna's move from the Newton, KS, hospital to the Wichita, KS, PICU. Isaac was more or less stable, though his breathing was more labored than it had been yesterday. Yet over the course of the day, it appeared he might be making some improvement.
In the end, though, the pediatrician was too conerned about a sudden change for the worse in Isaac's condition. Again, see the script from Joshua and Jenna Stucky, days 8-16 or 17.
The good news is, Isaac is in a tremendous facility right now with caretakers who seem to be absolutely top notch. He is in a private PICU room with a private bath, shower, and bed for Janel. It is a teaching hospital, which means lots of people look at Isaac. This is mostly good, though Janel had a slightly unpleasant run-in with one of the attending physicians. The supervising physician was phenomenal, and our RN for the night was terrific. When I left, I truly felt they were in good hands.
Janel and I both have a good deal of peace that Isaac is where he needs to be right now. Since he is in PICU, a nurse is always watching his monitor. This will hopefully allow Janel to sleep better tonight. Isaac is now on a C-PAP machine to assist his breathing. Since getting on it, he has been breathing with much greater ease, and his heart rate and blood-oxygen saturation has been good. Thanks to a very attentive nurse, the process of weaning Isaac off the machine had begun before I left tonight. The nurses on the peds floor in Trenton simply did not have the luxury of paying that much attention to Isaac.
It is still very difficult to tell when Isaac will come home. As I've already hinted, Isaac is following the script of big brother and big sister pretty closely. If he continues this, he could come home Thursday or Friday. We'll wait and see. Right now we are hopeful. There were moments today when it was difficult to be hopeful. Visits from great friends, encouraging e-mails, gifts of food, time, and money...all these things help us and give us strength when we feel very, very weak.
Hopefully I'll be able to post with good news tomorrow.
2 weeks ago
1 comment:
I read your first post about Issac minutes before we left for a mini vacation weekend in Lancaster. And now the first thing I've done since we've walked in the door is check your blog. I have been praying for all of you-- especially that God would strengthen Issac's body to fight whatever he is fighting.
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