Love Multiplies Here: Chest closed again...

Jadon's chest was closed on Friday afternoon. The wound had been irrigated and debrided twice at the bedside and twice in the OR, with a vacuum dressing on the wound in between these procedures. On Friday the sternum was wired shut and the wound stitched closed. However, the medical team is still concerned about infection so they pulled out another procedure used only once every several years. They are using external irrigation for Jadon' chest cavity. Basically, they have added Betadyne (an iodine solution) to a saline bag and are running a constant flow through Jadon's chest cavity. The solution is pumped in to the top of Jadon's chest at a constant rate, and the solution is drawn out through suction from a tube at the bottom of Jadon's chest. The system ran for 48 hour and was discontinued this evening. The dressing will be examined tomorrow and the hope is that they can move ahead confident that the infection has been cleared and we can move towards weaning Jadon off the ventilator and his medications. The poor little guy has had a rough go the last few day again. Despite large doses of many major drugs to help him be sedated and pain free, he has still been agitated quite a lot of the time. He is not thrashing about as he was earlier which is nice, but still uncomfortable obviously... but then hey, he's got many reasons to feel that way! The medical team has been trying all sorts of things to make him feel more comfortable.

During a stretch where Jadon was napping comfortably this afternoon, the rest of the family was able to go out for a Father's Day meal. I ended up picking a restaurant where dads ate free! We just had to bring proof of being a father. I guess the four amazing kids that were with me were proof enough! I feel totally blessed to be able to be a father to my 5 wonderful children, and to share the parenting load with my incredible wife Sara! It has been a long and trying 4 1/2 months, but they have all been understanding and supportive, and with the help of others, we are managing to hang in there! Thanks for all your help and prayers.