Medical Update: Gliches

Things seemed to go well for the surgery.  After the surgery, it took around 12 hours or so for his respirations to increase and to start getting back to normal. I felt pretty good about everything for a while however on Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, I noticed his breathing was starting to sound a bit loud. He was coughing more, or trying to cough. He was wretching a bit and he sounded pretty noisy. Anyway, I gave him a nebulizer (breathing) treatment and it seemed to help. His oxygen saturation level improved and went from 90 to 94. Due to the surgery, he's only been able to lie on his right side so the concern was that perhaps a right lung pneumonia might be starting. I have been turning him on his left side for short periods however his lungs sound so bad that I worry he can't breathe so I end up turning him back over within an hour or so. I also make sure I am totally awake when I do that since I worry he'll choke on his own secretions since he can't roll over on his own. Dear Son had been sleeping more and more and things didn't seem quite right. In addition, he hadn't been urinating  as much or having bowel movements as often. I started doing nebulizer treatments once a day, increased his Miralax to twice a day,  and did some chest pt. 

 

Around 1 a.m. or so this morning, I gave him his seizure medications (he gets them every six hours) and he sounded poor.I also gave him an additional dose of the Now Foods Organic Coconut Oil in case he's coming down with pneumonia. He's at high risk for pneumonia after the surgery.  I did some chest pt and gave him a nebulizer treatment at 2 a.m. and he sounds much better. His oxygen saturation was 93 after the treatment and he is breathing much, much better and he's stopped coughing.

 

I'll probably call the doctor tomorrow. I wonder if the anesthesia made it harder for him to have a bowel movement and I'd like some clarity on the lungs. I am not sure if I need to be doing anything else for him at this time. Our clinic visit is in a little less than 2 weeks and we should be able to get the settings on his Vagus Nerve Stimulator increased at that time so that should help these smaller seizures. Overall, I still think things are o.k. however I am a little concerned that this noisy breathing is not going away.