Back to the OR tomorrow :-(

Jadon has been doing better, been more alert, and more interactive over the last few days.  He has played with syringes, toys and has even blown a kiss on a few occasions.  His sedation has been continuously weaned and as he is now on a very small dose, his real personality is coming out more, which we are thrilled with.

Jadon playing with a syringe

The suction bandage on Jadon's wound has been doing a good job getting the pus out.  However, the infection has caused some issues and the sternum is destabilized.  This means that the problem in healing is not only the flesh wound, but the bone underneath.  It is very uncommon (but we have learned that Jadon very much is the uncommon one!) but occasionally necessary to go back and open the chest up again to clear an infection/wound and rewire the sternum closed.  Jadon will be going back to get that done tomorrow afternoon.  While they are there, the doctors might place another chest tube to help with the fluid drainage.

It is discouraging.  Obviously this will delay his full recovery as far as his chest wound is concerned.  However, we are hoping that this was the source of infection all along and that without his body having to fight that off, he will be able to heal faster and gain his strength back more quickly.

Meanwhile, Jadon's NJ tube accidentally came out yesterday. The team decided to try feeding him via the NG tube. Unfortunately he started aspirating a bit so they decided to put in the NJ tube again under fluoroscopy guidance. It went in really easily and Jadon was quickly back to his room. Although the radiologist had tested the tube before we left the GI suite, it was not functioning a few minutes later when the nurse tried to hook up feeds to it. The assumption is that it is kinked, but since he is going to the OR tomorrow anyway, they decided to not worry about it for now and start him on IV nutrition overnight and up until his surgery.