Out of Surgery - Back in the PICU

Titus cleft-palate repair surgery went smoothly this morning. As soon as surgery was over, they brought us up to the PICU. As expected, Titus always does great with surgery - it's his post-op breathing that is difficult. His CO2 levels were high, so they have him on constant zopenex right now and his levels are dropping back down. We have the same RT, doctors and PA that we had last year - so it's great they are familiar with Titus.

They pierced his tongue with a thread to hold it down in the event they need to. I tried to convince Becky to have a stud put in - she didn't go for it. They will remove it tomorrow.

He has arm restraints on, and will have to wear them for 2 weeks to keep his hands out of his mouth. Between the arm restraints and the breathing mask, he's pretty agitated. And he has a lot of secretions as his mouth is healing, but it's the first time he's ever had snot bubbles come out of his nose, or anything leak out his nose.

And, Dad is having a good day at Parkland. They are removing his chest tube and respirator/ventilator today. Once he is off the vent, the will put him in his back brace, and then he will be able to sit up more.

Becky will be spending the night with Titus tonight. I'll update more later if status changes.