A RECAP OF THE LAST 24 HOURS!

I want to try to recap what all has happened over the last 24 hours with Witt. Early yesterday Witt was doing really well. His potassium was down to 3.3 which was great. At that point they stopped the extra fluid he was getting and were just giving him his maintenance amount which is 730ml for the day. The previous days he was getting around 1400ml and no diuretics at all(at home he gets 4 doses a day). I was even thinking that he would probably go home in a handful of days. In the early hours of yesterday morning Mel and I were getting a little concerned that he was now beginning to be overloaded on fluids. Witt wasn't requiring oxygen at that time but his saturation was dropping overall a few points indicating that his lungs might be getting wet. Unfortunately, added into the mix was that he had a stomach ache that can affect his oxygen. Every step of this hospital visit Mel has told the doctors how sensitive to fluid he is and although he was dangerously dehydrated they needed to carefully hydrate him. Mel kept saying in the ER that she just remembered the last time this happened after his heart surgery that Witt ended up being rushed to the PICU and put on a ventilator because he swung too far on the fluids. I am not sure the doctors could have done anything different. Now we know that maybe his fluids need to be backed off when he is definitely headed in the right direction and not wait till his levels are exactly where they want them. His body obviously keeps absorbing the fluids and swings to far. Yesterday before noon Witt had to go on a little oxygen. Since his last labs had been so good the doctors assumed it was because of the way he was from his stomach issues. The decision was made to transfer Witt to a regular room on 15(the cardiac floor). The whole process of getting moved took a couple of hours or so. In that process Witt started requiring more oxygen...up to 3/4 liter. In just a few hours he had gone from no oxygen to 3/4 liter. I was actually away from the hospital with the other 2 most cutest grandbabies in the world(very biased opinion of course!). Mel called when Witt got into his room on 15 and said she just didn't like they way he looked. He was on oxygen and his breathing was becoming labored. The attending cardiologist on the floor came to look at Witt and wanted to keep a close eye on him. When I got to his room around 3pm he looked really bad. I have never seen him so pale. Even his hands were grayish white! His breathing was very labored. Doctors were there and the attending cardiologist came back in. He couldn't believe how much worse Witt had gotten in the hour since he had seen him. Witt was now on over 1 liter oxygen and having to work very hard to breathe. He was immediately given a diuretic through his gtube and several teams were called to try to get an IV in so he could get the diuretics by IV. Finally, the Kangaroo transport team were able to get an IV in his stomach using an ultra sound machine. During this time it was decided to send Witt back to PICU. Austan and Mel stayed back with Witt in PICU but they were getting very worried. Mel texted me she was getting really nervous that nothing had been done for him since he was brought down. He was getting worse. Finally she texted at 7:30 that she thought he had to be put on a vent because he was hardly breathing. Not that he was breathing hard and labored but now he just was barely breathing. His little body was probably wearing out. I hurried back to look at him and he was taking very few breaths. The doctors moved fast then and put him on the ventilator. He was then sedated and a central line was put in. All his labs came back really crazy. At one point his blood sugar dropped dangerously low to an 8 then a 4! Today its back at 119. His potassium had also become too low along with his heart rate. Today he is sedated and remains on the ventilator. All his "numbers" are getting back in the normal range. However, his little body is definitely overloaded with fluids. His lungs now have fluid in them. Melanie just asked the nurse to check with the cardiologist about the amount of diuretic Witt is getting. Right now he is getting just his normal home regimen through the gtube. In the past when Witt was on fluid overload he was given extra diuretic and through the IV which makes it even more potent. We have absolutely no idea how long this hospital stay will be. Since Christmas is a week away I am sure Witt will spend this Christmas here too. As I was walking in the hospital I heard some employees talking about their Christmas plans. I just started crying...I hurt for Witt, Mel and Austan. BUT my Faithful God would not let me stay in those thoughts. He reminded me that a little over year ago we thought Witt wouldn't be with us anywhere to celebrate even one Christmas and especially not two! I, my entire family, Mel and Austan have so much to be grateful for! Sure, there are legitimate things that we don't have but God clearly wants us to live in the light of the blessings and not in the darkness of what might be missing. I am standing in The Light rejoicing in the blessing we have in Witt!!!