1/5 6:30 pm

This first xray is from Monday. The left side has no lung.

The lung is making an appearance on the left side. But still lots of fluid and then some opacities on the right side.

This last picture is what we are striving for.

Ethan has had a restful day. He has music on. He has had a lot of visitors. Psych, other nurses that have had him in the past.  The ophthalmologist’s came by and evaluated his eyes. They said he will likely need a corneal specialist when we get him home. She actually has a friend in Rochester and said she knows someone really good. She then told me all about how this happens to patients that are paralyzed. I said to her “you would think there would be some preventive measures that could be taken if a patient is put on paralytics. Some kind of protocol for the eyes that is across the board to protect them.” Seems logical. Apparently they have something on the adult side but not quite there with the pediatric side.

I had the ophthalmologist show me how to do it because their instructions last time were misinterpreted by the nurses and for consistency of care, it is something I can do. They took away the eye chambers because apparently they can cause fungal infections? We had a different doctor today. So I have been properly taping Ethan’s eyelids shut. 

Ethan’s nurse is awesome. He has had this nurse before and I really like her. She figured out Ethan will drop his oxygen when his left side is up. His left side is struggling a bit so she is turning him left to right every hour or two to avoid his deep tissue injury on his lower back from getting worse. Ethan had a wound specialist come and look at the spot on his back. We are doing all the right things to help him.

She also reintroduced the frequencer to help break up his lung butter. That is not a typo. Lung butter. The frequencer is like a gentle massager. It helps jostle lung secretions so they can be removed.  I was shown how to use the machine a few weeks ago by my kick as respiratory technician new friend.  It is something I can do for the nurse to help.  

I vibrated the crap out of his lungs and told him I expected his X-ray to look better tomorrow as well as his oxygen level needs to come up and stay up.

I felt Hell mocking me for not going for a walk. Shut up hell. I will go when I am ready. So I left mid afternoon and went to the apartment. Ethan was ok while I was gone. 

I was discussing with one of the nurses that works here the little park across the street. I told her about the few whacko’s and weird things that have happened to me in that park. She says that is the park where the homeless poop. Ugh! She also said to avoid walking in between cars because people poop there too. 😳 I know they have to go somewhere but yikes! I thanked her for the info. I feel very sheltered from real society. 

Ethan has had 700 ml taken off of his body today. They are going to go slow. This is progress. I will take progress. I am hoping for a quiet night.