Our poor little boy is so swollen!

Yesterday was discouraging. Brian had a lot of difficulty breathing which resulted in some increases to the vent settings. Brian's blood pressure was low so the doctors gave him a drug called albumen which is fluid pushed into Brian's vessels or veins. Albumen is what the doctors and nurses refer to as volume. The albumen helped his blood pressure. Unfortunately the fluid is leaking from Brian's vessels and draining into his tissue causing his body to continue to swell. The doctors can't give Brian lasix to help him eliminate the fluid because lasix pull fluid from the vessels, not the tissue, which would only make the situation worse. Also, lasix are hard on his kidneys which still are not functioning the way they should. Brian still has the clot in his neck preventing fluid from draining from his head. As you can see his head is huge! We also found out a couple days ago that Brian is draining a significant amount from his chest tube again. The fluid contains lymphocytes or white blood cells. For now Brian is not loosing lymphocytes at the same rate as before but he still may need another surgery.

Brian is much more comfortable today. They have not tried to wean on vent settings but his last blood gas looked much better than yesterdays.