Surgery Day #10

Well, I have good news and bad news. Good news is that Henry was extubated around one o'clock this afternoon! Bad news is that it didn't go as smoothly as we had hoped. Remember that one step forward, two back thing?! Henry was very shaky and really struggling for his breaths immediately after extubation. His "blood gases" or labs reflected this struggle and indicated we needed a plan B pretty quickly. The providers decided on a less invasive and/or alternative option first rather than re-intubating him and put Henry on something called BiPAP. This means he is breathing on his own with positive pressure via a big mask on his face. At first Henry seemed to continue to struggle breathing despite this assistance, but by 4:00 this evening he relaxed a bit and his labs are continuing to reflect this.

They also completed an ultrasound due to some of the symptoms he was experiencing and found that one side of Henry's diaphram was paralyzed due to some damage to a nerve during surgery. The diaphram should expand when you inhale and contract when you exhale, and one side of Henry's is doing the opposite. Most kids Henry's age are able to acclimate to quirky things like this, but the providers are worried that because of Henry's additional complications (new heart, strep infection, etc) that we might need to address this with surgery or lots of additional recovery time.

Sooo, the plan seems to be to follow him cautiously on BiPAP and look into plan B if there are any changes. Hopefully tomorrow is a better day... for both Henry and the Jayhawks:) More soon!

Much love,

-K&J