A Very Long Night

Last night didn't quite go as smoothly as we all would have liked. Tyler came up very agitated and fussy which we expected. He just had brain surgery with a tube snaked down to his stomach. There is a whole world of hurt there. As we are watching him in that first 1/2 we noticed his eyes sun-downing and his whole body tensing up with no responses to us. We think he may have had a couple of seizures. Tyler came back form the OR to a nurse that has never worked with him before. She noticed the sun-downing but assumed that a patient coming in for a shunt would have sun-downing pre-op, Tyler did not. Ben had to go out a second time and demand that they page Neuro. Once the staff understood this to be all new things got busy here. The Neurology resident came running in, we had a rush CT scan, and a neurologist was woken up to come in and have a look. The CT scan showed good news, no new bleeding or any areas of concern. There were a few air pockets in his ventricles, but that is normal after this type of procedure. The decision was made to jack up his morphine, give him 100% oxygen (to help speed up the absorption of the air), and to give him Phenolbarbitol, an anti seizure med that also helps by taking the edge off so he can relax. I can't say he had a peaceful night, but he was kept as comfortable as we could make him. We are hopeful the seizures are a pain and post-op reaction and will go away when he feels better. Also having no nutriention for the better part of 16 hours before surgery his electrolyte levels are all out of wack. He finally took a medium size bottle this morning and gave me his hunger cries. They also are now supporting him with electrolites and sugar water to brings things back to normal. With any luck he should keep improving today. Hopefully we can keep his pain under control.