Another tough day

The day started out pretty calm. Kelson had another good night, and Krista was able to hold at the 8 AM feeding. After the feeding, we decided to leave the hospital for a few hours and visit the mall, especially since things had been going so well. We returned just after lunch time.

At 2 PM, it was my turn to hold. My mom was here so she got to see him up close and personal. While I was holding him, the Respiratory Therapist stopped by to adjust his ventilator settings. We were a bit surprised, because we didn't think there would be any major changes until at least tomorrow. The new ventilator setting was going to allow Kelson to breathe more on his own. Unfortunately, Kelson noticed the change immediately, and did Not like it. He started dropping his heart rate and pulse ox. Suddenly I had a team surrounding my chair, working on Kelson while I was holding him. They had to change the vent settings back to where they were, and increase his oxygen until he finally stabilized. They put him back in his bed, and he settled back down, but never seemed as content as he had been.

When the doctor came to evaluate him, she ordered another chest X-ray, because his lungs sounded rough. The X-ray showed that there was noticeably more fluid than had been there two days earlier. They decided to aspirate his chest to see if they could draw the fluid off without having to put the drainage tube back in. The fluid that was drained off was very milky, compared to a more clear yellow liquid that had been drained off previously. They immediately sent the fluid off to be tested.

We finally got the test results back at about 7:30 tonight. We learned that Kelson has a chylothorax. We don't fully understand what this condition is, but it is very rare. Most of the nurses have little to no experience with it. Basically it is causing fatty fluid to accumulate on his lung. We hope to learn more about it tomorrow, and know a better plan for treatment. As for now, just continue to pray for Kelson, and for the wisdom of his medical team. We hope that they will be able to treat the condition and the road to healing will continue.