The Road Home

It has been over 48 hours since Ethan's surgery and he is still at Children's (with Dina). He is still not eating/drinking significantly and overnight it was found his oxygen saturation levels dropped to a very low level (77 at it's lowest).

His ENT (who was also the surgeon) checked in on him this morning and determined that all the problems seem to be related to swelling in his mouth under his tongue which was due to a myriad of surgical implements that were placed there to keep his mouth open, tongue in place, etc. during the procedure.

The result of all the accoutrements that were placed in that area is that is is irritated and swollen. This means that when he reaches deeper levels of sleep, his tongue is more apt to basically flop over and obstruct his airway resulting in the depressed levels of oxygen saturation.

It was also found that when they gave him steroids to help with the inflammation, Ethan perked right up, his oxygen saturation levels improved greatly, and it was during this time he showed renewed interest in eating and drinking. About the time when the steroids wore off - that coincided with when he got much more irritable and less interested in food and liquids.

The plan going forward is to give him a shot of steroids and then watch him again during that time period. If all signs improve again, he will be sent home with a course of steroids that we can deliver (probably over the course of 5-7 days). This will help alleviate the swelling (which would disappear on it's own - but it might take up to 2 weeks on it's own).

So we are somewhat hopeful that Ethan can come home tomorrow (Monday, 9/19/2011).

- b