Thursday, August 16

Yesterday was a roller coaster of emotion. Collin was wheeled into surgery around 9:00 am and at 9:30 the operating room nurse called with an update; Collin was sleeping soundly and under the care of the anesthesiologist. Around 10:00, Tricia ("Operating Room Coordinator") introduced herself and explained that she would be giving us updates as the surgery progressed. She gave us all some reassuring information and put us at ease. We barely had time to eat an early lunch and start discussing the long day ahead of us when Erin was called to the waiting room phone. It was the operating room; Collin's S.T.E.P. was done and they were just waiting to get him into a recovery room!

We all looked at the clock at the same time; the operation that was to possibly have taken between 4-6 hours had only taken 2 1/2! The minutes we waited for Dr. Sudan to come out of the surgery seemed like hours. Unable to contain herself, Collin's mommy paced the length of the surgery waiting room, a stuffed animal held tightly in her arms. Suddenly she yelled across the room to Matt and I, "I think I see her!" then, "I DID see her!" and she took off to accost the poor doctor. We all met in a conference room where she gave us the amazing news...Collin's small intestine had grown to 63 cm (up from the 20 cm that were saved on the day he was born) and, through the S.T.E.P., she was able to increase it to 126 cm!! She said (with confidence) that she suspects he will lead a normal, active life with this procedure. She also expects him to be weaned off the tpn by the time he is discharged from the hospital (in 2-3 weeks) so she will take his broviac line then. We all were teary eyed and thrilled!

The euphoria lasted an hour or two, during which we had to physically hold Collin's mama so she wouldn't float off the couch. Always as cool as a cucumber, dad read a book. We waited until Tricia came out and announced Collin was in recovery and mom could go back and see him. Mommy went back and as soon as she started talking to him, Collin opened his eyes and looked at her. Then he fell back into his fuzzy wonderland. Eventually Collin was moved up to his temporary home, in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU). This is where the roller coaster went from chugging up the hill slowly and thrillingly into suddenly spiraling down into that low part; the one where you swallow your heart and sometimes are too scared to scream.

Collin's PICU nurse, Kim, had given Collin a dose of morphine. Sometimes the morphine relaxes the respiratory system and the patient might not take a breath for a second or two, which is (literally) alarming. This has happened several times since he made it to the PICU; all we do is put a hand on his chest and call his name loudly. He usually responds with a wail, the alarm quits beeping and all is well with the world.

This particular time, a few minutes after Kim had given Collin the dose of morphine, she suctioned his throat to help him breath better. She noticed his breaths were really shallow, so she sat him up and started rubbing his back while calling his name. His mama was holding his hand, calling his name and trying to get him to take the breath when his hand went limp and he turned blue. The RN quickly grabbed a respiration bag and began to breathe for him. She instructed a technician to get a doctor and instructed another nurse to grab a medicine called "Narcan". (Narcan is the antidote to morphine.)

During the agonizing wait for a doctor (one was needed to actually "prescribe" the Narcan, because it is a narcotic) the PICU respiratory therapist, David, arrived. He took over the "bagging" and Kim continued to articulate to her co-workers the importance of getting a doctor in our room "NOW!" When she finally told the tech to "run down the hall and yell for a doctor!" I knew time was of the essence. Suddenly she reached out, hit the "Code Blue" button and then administered the Narcan. Within seconds, two very noisy things happened. The first was Collin reacted to the antidote. He began thrashing violently and screaming loudly. He was obviously VERY scared and VERY mad! (I think I can speak for everyone in the room when I say we were all VERY relieved!!)

The second thing that occurred was the response to the
"Code Blue". In hospital jargon, this means, "all hands!" and anyone available must respond to the "emergency". In less than 30 seconds there were 7 people in the room assisting Kim and Dave. Over the next few minutes, the crowd inside and outside the room grew by about 20 more staffers. The staff physicians all agreed that Kim did exactly the right thing; they also lamented the fact that a nurse (with over 21 years of experience) couldn't feel comfortable giving her patient the emergency medicine he needed. To me, Kim and Dave are heroes. There was never a moment of panic or fear in their actions or voices; consummate professionals, they calmly saved my grand baby's life and then went on with the rest of their shifts.

As I got off the roller coaster and left for the night, I again said a prayer of thanks for all of the blessings bestowed upon us. Thank God Dave was on the wing at the right time; thank God Kim was our nurse and not someone prone to panic and freak out. Thank God our little family is in the right place right now and Collin is healing so well. (And thank God they figured out the dosage so they can manage Collin's pain WITHOUT having him turn blue again!)


Our little family had a rough first night. After the excitement earlier in the day, every one's nerves were shot. In addition, the PICU is extremely busy right now, so it was very noisy all night long. No one slept very well (if at all). This morning mommy and daddy went home for a bit to rest and shower, while Grandma stayed to watch over her little angel. During that time Collin had a blood transfusion (he had none during his surgery, even though they expected he might), had his sutures checked (everything looks perfect)and did very well with all his meds. Hopefully he will be moved into his new temporary home in the pediatric unit in the next few days. Then his mommy can make her special magic and make into a bright and welcome room for Collin to heal!