Settling in at DHMC and stable.

Last night Dad and I got up to DHMC at about 11:30. Tyler had already been in his room for an hour, and was well in the process of being hooked up to their fancy High-frequency ventilator.

We were told in no uncertain terms that the long road we were on is now a long roller-coaster. There will be lots of ups and downs. We had one such down-event last night. Not long after we arrived his Oxygen saturation took at turn a nose-dive. The team worked for a good 2 hours tweaking and adjusting. We watched for a while as his levels came back into the normal ranges. We finally hit the sack at 2:30 am. I called back at 8:30 AM for a status report and he was doing fine.

After a quick bite to eat we're back in the hospital When I got to his bed I almost went back to the desk to make sure I had the right kid. His color was great, he looked much more relaxed and comfortable. The baby the greeted me this morning. Nice and pink, all the cables and wires neat and dressed. Last night he looked like something you would find in my office :-)

The next few pictures may come as a shock. He currently has ALOT of supporting hardware.
At last count 7 IV pumps, A tricked-out super-bubble-bed, High frequency ventilator, 2 PulseOx monitors, Co2 monitor, nitric oxide supply system, an arterial Blood-pressure monitor, and an ECG. The kid is drawing more power than my rack of servers at home...

Last night.















This morning
Here's some of the hardware:
Tyler has 3 IVs right now.
UVC (Umbilical Veins Catheter)
UAC (Umbilical Artery Catheter)
perherial artery
7 IV pumps:

Left side top to bottom:
1)UVC Starter TPN Protein
2)UVC D10 (Sugar water)
3)Meds and flushes.

Right side top to bottom:
1)UAC D10 (Just to keep the line open)
2)Fentanyl Bulbus. standby sedative.
3)Fentanyl drip. sedative.
4)Dopamine (blood-pressure control).



The Machine to the left is the High frequency ventilator. It pulses air(about 150 times/second)
On top of that is the C02 monitor To the right of the ventilator is the nitric oxide infusion system. The nitric oxide dilates the capillaries in his lungs so that he can absorb more oxygen into his blood.

The Fentanyl in the IV to keep him sedated and pain free. If he is too alert he will try to breathe on his own and work against the ventilator.



The last pic I had turned out pretty bad so I'll spare you. It is the monitor screen with all the vitals tracing on it.