A Bean’s Life

At around one in the morning last night, Gavin’s blood pressure returned to normal and I thought we might be out of the woods. No such luck.

The rest of the night passes uneventfully except for the fact that he woke up while the nurse was in the room around two and refused to go back to sleep but wanted to watch a DVD. Although I said no, he became far too agitated so I gave in and we watched Curious George until 3:30. I was in a sleep-deprived fog at this point, and the rest of the night passed in a blur. He woke up before 7 full of life and we started playing.

Throughout the morning he seemed alright but we tried to run formula feeds and he couldn’t stomach it at all and threw up. Bubby came to relieve me and an exhausted Daddy and we took a break together, relieved that everything seemed to be going okay again. The critical care response team came again to look at him and thought he looked great.

Unfortunately, by afternoon his blood pressure was starting to go up again and heart-rate remains high. He was really desperately unwell but is having a hard time explaining what it is that’s hurting. He complains of itchy nose and ears, and obvious stomach pain. We were supposed to have a repeat ECHO today, so I was at my sister’s napping on the couch this afternoon, assuming that this had been done and all was well.

Unfortunately, when I got back all hell had broken loose again. Gav was lying down asleep, and it was decided to order a chest x-ray again. The scan showed less fluid in his lungs and his heart didn’t appear as large. The ECHO was necessary but cardio were giving our team a hard time, assuming that Gavin would need to be sedated for the ultrasound although he never has been before. Finally, our staff had to get quite loud on our behalf and got cardio up here. The doctor who came was disgruntled and spent the first little bit being quite an ass, before he succumbed to Bean’s charms.

Luckily, the ECHO showed what the doctor considered a normal amount of fluid, and the heart appears to be functioning well, although the drugs he’s had do have very negative effects on heart and major organ function. The problem is that no one knows why his blood pressure is so high, or heart-rate so high. His oxygen sat. levels remain low, so he’s got oxygen flowing near his face as he sleeps. He’s received medication for blood pressure again, but it has yet to take effect. He has vomited quite a few times today too.

And yet, in typical Bean fashion, he has these amazing spurts of energy too. After he woke up from his second nap, he wanted to play with some musical instruments Bubby had bought, and we were all banging away on tambourines and xylophones and singing Jingle Bells when critical care came to assess him again. Of course, they
thought he looked great and left after a few encouraging words.

The question is, what’s going on? Does he have an infection that is at the root of all of this? Is this still a reaction to transplant yesterday? Has he suffered some permanent damage from the chemotherapy? All of these questions are unanswered as of yet. We can only watch, wait, and hope.

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