Massimo had a very good night. He got lots and lots of rest. Both the morphine and the sedation helped to ensure that he got all the R&R he needed and he was bright as a button this morning when I went in. They did a chest x-ray to check that the new tracheostomy tube was correctly in place and then I got him out for a cuddle. They had weaned his ventilation down but did not put him onto CPAP until he was in my arms at around 12. Massimo coped with the change very well and although he looked wonderful the monitor was saying that his heart rate was just a little higher than normal.
At 2.30 they took him off CPAP and he is currently on a smidgen of oxygen. He is managing very well although he is working just a tiny bit harder, but nothing more than what I would have said was normal.
I need to mention a few mistakes that I made in last night’s entry. (1) It is called a rigid bronchoscopy and not a fixed bronchoscopy (like you care! I know, but it is good to get these things right!) and (2) the swelling at the bottom of his tracheostomy is called a granuloma and it won’t just go away, it needs to be lasered and this will be done when they do the rigid bronchoscopy. The ENT surgeon is keen to do the bronchoscopy as soon as possible as he does not want the granuloma to be dislodged by the movement of the tracheostomy tube so he is hoping to do it as soon as Massimo is back from GOS. We need to hope that we can get the gastrostomy organised to happen at the same time.
Other things that they are planning, should Massimo still be in SGH, is an echo of his heart on Monday, just to check that his left bronchus isn’t being squashed rather than being made narrow. Also they want to do a PH study to see how bad his reflux really is and that is planned for Thursday and can happen either in PICU or in the ward upstairs. Neither of these things are urgent and we are rather hoping to be at GOS by then!
So all in all he is much, much better and we shall let you know if or when we are being transferred to GOS.