06.29.08
One Step Forward, Two Steps Back
Logan suffered a huge setback in his recovery yesterday (6/28/08) . . . after waiting so long for him to move to the jet ventilator, he’s once again back on the oscillator. 
Lance & I stayed at a time share hotel in Waikiki from Wednesday, June 25th through Saturday, June 28th (courtesy of his parent’s time share points!). At 5:40 in the morning on Saturday, Lance’s cell phone rang. When I checked the caller ID, my heart plummeted to my stomach when I saw that the call was coming from the hospital. I quickly woke Lance up & put the call on speaker phone so that we could both hear what was going on. Pam (one of the nurse practitioners in the NSCU) was calling to tell us that they had been having a lot of trouble keeping Logan oxygenated on the jet ventilator. They made the decision to put Logan back onto the oscillator at 5:30 in the morning. Pam told us that the doctors suspected that Logan was suffering from some kind of infection in his lungs. She assured us that blood samples were being cultured & observed in the lab for any signs of infection . . . she also assured us that Logan was already being treated with several different antibiotics to help get rid of any infections he might have.
After receiving the call, I couldn’t stop the tears that welled up. As usual, Lance was my rock & hugged me while I had a good cry. Once I got that out of my system, we rushed to pack up our things & check out of the hotel. We arrived at the NSCU at 6:55 a.m. It was hard to see our baby back on the “monster” (aka oscillator) & at such high settings . . . Logan hasn’t been on vent settings like that for a while now. He spent most of the morning on those high settings, with his oxygen saturation level bouncing up & down.
Being back on the monster also put a lot of pressure on his heart, which in turn made his blood pressure drop. He was put back onto the Dopamine to help bring his blood pressure up. He was also given a blood transfusion early in the morning to help him. They also started him on stress doses on Hydrocortizone to help him deal with the trauma his little body was going through. In order to get all of these medications into him, Aunty Carol (his night nurse) had to put another IV in Logan’s head. Ouch.
Despite how sick Logan was on Saturday, he remained feisty through it all! They gave him a small dose of Pavulon (a paralyzing drug) to help calm him enough to allow the oscillator to begin working. True to his stubborn nature, Logan refused to go quietly! He kept his eyes open & looking around the whole time he was supposedly paralyzed . . . he also twitched his fingers occasionally to let us know that he wasn’t going without a fight!
At some point in the day (I can’t remember when), I asked Deena (his day nurse) if Logan could have another pacifier . . . his old one fell out of his isolette several days ago & was never replaced. As soon as she put that paci in his mouth, he began sucking away! I’m sure he was thinking to himself, “It’s about time those grown-ups listened to me! I’ve been trying to tell them that I want my paci for days now!”. He happily sucked on his paci for a loong time . . . it really helped to soothe him, which helped him to bring his sats back up into the 90s. With his trusty paci in his mouth, he was able to tolerate whatever his aunties were doing to him . . . changing his diaper, drawing blood MANY times for his MANY blood gases, moving him, etc.
Lance & I were at the hospital for a whopping 14 hours yesterday! We arrived at 7 a.m. & didn’t leave until about 9 p.m. We had lunch & dinner at the hospital cafeteria so that we could remain close by. We didn’t leave until we felt that Logan was pretty stable. By the time we got home last night, we were POOPED! We were both in bed by 11 p.m. and slept in pretty late this morning. I had to get up twice to pump & called to check on Logan each time. We were relieved to hear that he was having a much better night & that he was still pretty stable.
Today, Logan is still on relatively high settings on the monster, but they are slowly weaning him down. By this evening, he was able to get his oxygen support percentage into the 60s. After getting another blood transfusion, they stopped his Dopamine & he’s been able to maintain his own blood pressure. We were all (especially Logan) happy to hear that Aunty Kassie would be back on “Logan duty” tonight! Before we left for the night, Kassie assured us that she would “have a talk” with Mister Logan to let him know that all of this nonsense & monkey business was not appreciated! 
We know he’ll have a better night now that he’s got his favorite aunty back!
Hopefully our next post will bring MUCH better news on Logan!