Post Op Day 4

11:00 PM  Overall it has been a very productive day. Apollo continues to check off post-op milestones. He has been weaned to a 1/2 liter of oxygen and has kept his oxygen saturation levels high. The night nurse thinks she may get down to zero before the morning. The chest tube drainage also slowed tremendously today. It is very likely the tubes will come out on Wednesday. His appetite and thirst seem to be growing. Keep going little man!! 

12:00 PM  Because the 10AM post was a bit of a downer, thought everyone would like to see Apollo’s trip to the playroom and the joy that Blathim (pronounced Blah-heem) the patient care dog brought to him!! Also for those that enjoy fortuitous-ness. Apollo’s monster blanket (which he loves) needed to be washed because of the vomit this morning. He was quite upset about not having it. What did they have on the way to the laundry room?? A volunteer group handing out hundreds of handmade blankets. While there wasn’t a monster blanket, I found one with dogs that he  seems to be enjoying as a substitute. He has twice asked, where is my doggy blanket.

10:00 AM A little bit of a rough morning for Mr. Apollo. During the night his cough started to get a bit more “wet”. This is not that uncommon after he was up and moving for the first time yesterday. The movement starts loosening things up. Then later the cocktail of meds didn’t sit right and made him vomit. His chest x-ray shows a bit of fluid on his lungs, but nothing too alarming. Dr. Marx came in and said the discharge from his chest tube is a bit higher than they would like to pull the tubes, so it sounds like that is going to be pushed to tomorrow. Disappointing, but we would rather they come out at the right time than having to put them back in!!!  

Today’s goal is to continue getting up and moving around!