Morphine Reaction

Well I had really been hoping that Brandt would be "back" before we left last night. Even when we're pleased that he's doing so well, I don't like seeing him with his little arms strapped down and no smile from our ALWAYS happy little Super B. We had to leave early last night because they were doing a procedure in the ICU and we didn't know when we could get back in to see him. Glenn knew I've been short on sleep and insisted we head back to the house where we're staying...

By the way, we are SO THANKFUL again for the amazing housing provided by Cross Bridge. It is just a huge blessing to be able to leave the hospital and go to a comfortable safe place for rest.

When I called early in the morning to check on him, I was happy to hear he'd been able to get off his oxygen. His day shift nurse had said the night shift nurse would be working on weaning the BP and sedation meds, but again they were not able to do that because his numbers just would not allow it. She commented again on how agitated he got every time he wanted to eat...this seems to be a continuing theme for him. But they also thought he was having an allergic reaction to the morphine he's on...terrible itching. They gave him Benadryl, but the night before I had already been asking if it was not possible that some of these many meds could be causing an adverse reaction resulting in the agitation. They said there would be some other kind of sign, such as hives, if that were true. But I mean, versed, precedex, morpheine, oxycodone--just to name a few, it does make you wonder.

So when we got here this morning and I saw his little face all swollen and red, I felt so terrible for him. We spoke with his nurse and head of the ICU about changing out at least the morphine for some other kind of pain meds, and they agreed to make some adjustments. Gradually the swelling has come down today...his drainage is still average. It was great to have all the tubes and monitors off his face. Dr. Bradley agreed to take out his RA line late this afternoon. They also started him back on his oral BP meds to see if that would even out the BP numbers to get him off the IV BP meds. Around noon he came off those, and he's had some ups and downs with BP since then. We have had to be out of the ICU for the past couple hours due to procedures and new cases coming in--they've asked the families to leave. We're anxious to see if the RA line is indeed out and confirm his BP numbers have stayed stable...he may be able to go to the recovery floor tomorrow if he has a good night!