Champ

Bridger continues to do incredibly well. He is starting to breathe on his own (over the ventilator) and his nurse is weaning him off of some of the cardiac drips. His blood pressures have been quite stable and everyone seems pleased with his progress. The pacemaker wires will likely come out tonight and they are even talking about extubating before the 24hr mark. Unbelievable how well he is doing. His nurse has been giving him Tylenol and Toradol (a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory) around the clock with Morphine once in a while when he looks uncomfortable. He is definitely starting to stir a bit, stretching out his legs and he briefly opened his eyes.
Since he is doing so well, we are going to head down to our "sleep room" and try to get some decent rest. I think that I got an hour, at best, last night. They have several sleep rooms for parents whose kids are in the ICUs- basically windowless rooms with a sofa bed and bathroom. Far easier to sleep there than in the ICU. Since we are in the open "bay" we have to leave the unit during shift change in the morning and evening. It's a bit of a bummer to miss the change of shift report because so much information is conveyed. Now I really understand the push to have nurses give report at the bedside. When I began working, almost 8 years ago (?!) we were always tucked away in the nurses station or conference room for shift change report. There was a lot of resistance to give bedside report but it really does makes sense. Otherwise, patients and families feel like they are a bit in the dark. Luckily, the CICU nurses are amazing and keep us well-informed.
Hopefully we will have more good news to pass on in the morning. Good night.