2 posts in 1

Current:
We gave Bobby morphine last night to help him get more relaxed and comfortable. It really seemed to help him through the night and he even had a small breakthrough where he seemed like himself. However, they are trying to wean him off of it and onto oxycodone. We tried to give him tylenol to take the edge off the pain so that he could eat and then we could give him the oxy. That plan failed because his pain got really intense again. Finally, we gave him the oxy around 1 hour ago in hopes that it would ease his pain and that he would keep it down. Now he seems to be resting more comfortably.

Bobby has developed a fairly large pleural effusion, which is a collection of fluid around the lungs. There is also a clot in his chest tube which is holding up some of the fluid in his body. They have given him 2 diuretics to help him get rid of some of this fluid. The surgeon's physician's assistant keeps working on dislodging the clot. Our goal is to get him up and moving to help these things along as well. If he is up and about, that is the best thing for him. There is a music therapy session scheduled at 2:00 and we are working towards that. Most of you know how much Bobby loves music, so we hope and pray that it is enough to help convince him to go. Thank you for the continued prayers...

Last night:
Bobby threw up around 3:45 am last night. We though he was headed in the right direction since he was taking in some fluids and we made it to step-down. His biggest problem seemed to be gas and needing to go to the bathroom. About 5 minutes after we got into stepdown, he finally pooped and then threw up again (4:30pm). He just is not happy and not feeling well at all. It is so hard! So, we are continuing to work on his pace. He still has a very little amount of oxygen, IV fluids, and his chest tube. The good news is that things are starting to slow down as far as drainige, so it may come out tomorrow. He does have a small right pleural effusion, so he is on diuretics to reduce it. We really need your prayers tonight!!