+ and -

+ My husband is here!

+ Stellan had a pretty stable night with no surprise SVT.

+ Dr. A was in this morning and said if Stellan was going to show us that the pathway was not dead, he probably would have done it by now. He also said that Stellan has never indicated having any other tachycardia mechanism in his heart. In other words: We are talking here about a baby that we all now pretty solidly believe will never have SVT again. Ever.

- Stellan has no pulse at all in his right leg. No pulse can be felt by hand and no pulse can even be heard by Doppler. His right leg (and foot and toes especially) is cold, grey and smaller than his left leg. Because the doctors had a very hard time poking around and getting some arterial and venous lines started, especially in that leg, a rather large hematoma was created. It's a blood clot/bruise around Stellan's artery right in his groin. Right now, it is restricting blood flow to and from his right leg. He has been on blood thinners all night to try to break up the clot so blood flow can be restored. We aren't having a lot of success yet. He could definitely use prayer for this situation.

- Stellan has a fever.

+ The entry sites in his neck are looking great and perfectly normal today.



- Stellan's lung cultures came back with bacteria growth. He has yellow junk coming from his lungs. Because there was growth over the night, he'll start on antibiotics soon. He's obviously still in the CICU (Cardiac Intensive Care Unit) today.

+ His blood pressure is perfect!

- Stellan is having a bit of a hard time diuresing fluid. He was given lots of fluid yesterday during the time he was crashing, to help his blood pressure come back. And now, that fluid is in his tissues and his lungs. They don't want to start to turn down the vent or extubate him until he can get rid of more fluid. They were hoping he'd get rid of it in the night so they could extubate this morning, but that didn't happen.

- Because narcotics can also cause you to have breathing trouble, and since the goal is to get Stellan off the ventilator today, they have turned down his narcotics and put him on a fast acting drip in his iv of a sedative. They need him to lay (lie?) still so he doesn't pull his vent tube out. But he is right on the verge of awake and asleep. Any tiny noise is stirring him and causing him to be very agitated. We were with him until this morning, but his nurse said it would really be safer for him to have complete calm and quiet for a few hours. So rather than further cause him to be worked up, Prince Charming and I are going to spend the rest of the morning away from the CICU and let Stellan rest. Hopefully, he will keep working on getting rid of his fluid!

+ I have lots to say about you, God and Stellan's amazing successful surgery. My husband and I can't stop talking about it. I'll share more later about how these things are impacting us. But for now, our complete focus is still on Stellan. We may have won the battle, but we're focused on him until he wins this war!!