PICU Day 2

Things are rough here...we are living hour to hour...things are still critical. The night was very rocky with worsening blood gases. Noah is proving to be very difficult to ventilate. His asthmatic issues really complicate things, causing these long, forced expirations, that do battle with the breathes the ventilator is trying to give him. Ketamine has been added to his ever growing list of drugs to help with the asthmatic issues, as well as lots of ventolin. Many ventilator changes to try and find a happy place for Noah, but we still don't seem to be there yet. Gases are still bad, but not worsening this evening. Noah's blood pressure has begun to drop...he received more albumin and a dopamine infusion was started. He is still spiking crazy high fevers and his kidneys are not functioning well. Nothing has grown so far on any of the cultures and H1N1 results won't be back until tomorrow. So really, not definitive diagnoses yet other than ARDS (acute respiratory distress syndrome).

Line access, as always, has been a major issue again, as Noah is needing more and more meds. Since our central line is only a single lumen and Noah needs that for his TPN, more access was quickly needed. The docs managed to get a double lumen PICC line in his femoral vein, but because of so much scarring, were unable to thread it much. Hopefully it will at least buy us some time.

Praying once again for another miracle.

(Update: 2:00 am July 29 ... Nichole called me (Brad) in early this morning because Noah was going downhill very fast. The Doctors were not sure if he would make it through the night. Noah is currently on medication to sustain his blood pressure and effective heart beat, he is also on the oscillating ventilator and kidneys have shut down. More updates to come as there are any.)

(Update: 12:00 pm July 29 ... This morning at around 9:00 Noah's blood pressure dropped to a critical low and he went into Cardiac Arrest. There was very little the doctors could do except some last effort medications. After almost 2 minutes, Noah (and God) had his own plan and returned to spontaneous circulation. He is still fighting and will have a tough day ahead. Thank you for all the prayers... God is real, he is listening, and answering...)