Update 6:45 am - Night/Early morning in ICU

Cole had a pretty quiet night in ICU. He was definitely stirring more and they even got him turned over a little on to his side. Shawn held the late night shift while I slept a bit -- the later part of that statement being more true -- a very little bit. I got up and relieved him about ~2:45.

He is still doing a little bit of self-soothing where he sucks on his tongue. That in turn creates some extra secretions, which having the big tube in your nose and mouth, makes it difficult to clear. The nurse does a great job of watching all of his monitors (of which there are no less than four) and recording everything. On one of those occasions at around 5:30 she noticed that his arm, specifically his right arm was twitching a bit - rhythmically - he was having a small seizure. Cole's never had seizures before. We know it's possible, but it's also not a foregone conclusion with his condition. They were able to give him some medication which almost immediately halted the seizure. His heart rate and blood pressure were up a bit (probably near my levels) but pretty understandable. Once he calmed down things started going back to normal. They contacted all of the doctors who performed surgery the Plastic surgeon who was responsible for reshaping his head as well as the Neurosurgeon who is responsible for his shunt. They confirmed that his CT scan from last night did have some blood showing, the amount was not significant and it's possible to have a seizure under those conditions.

We were settling back to monitoring and charting when his nurse noticed he was posturing (where the body goes more rigid than tapping), another form of seizures. The attending resident prescribed an additional dosage of medication, which had almost immediate results - again. Luckily, he was scheduled for another CT scan this morning, so they whisked him off, as much as you can do tied and hooked up to monitors and bags.

I've been kicked out of the ICU for their morning shift change (which is why I'm able to post an update so immediate to the event) but that will allow the doctors to review the results and get more information. They discussed hooking him up to another device that will monitor the electrical impulses in his head also as a precaution. That's a good thing. However, they will take off his head bandages as it involves placing devices and electrodes on his little noggin. They've indicated it's safe to take off the bandages at this point (my research suggests they probably would have come off tomorrow anyway) - it's just going to amp up the pictures we'll be posting. We'll provide some warnings for the more squeamish. I know I sent some of you links to some of our parents blogs (e.g., Rosamonds -- thanks you guys) to 'prepare' folks for what Cole would likely look like. But it's still breaks your heart a little to see their tender body so puffy and full of stuff - no matter if it's your child or that of a friend.

Speaking of puffy, it's probably not nearly as clear from the pictures, but if you'll look at the wrists and legs you can see where all of the excess fluid they're pumping into him is going.

There's still a few more things they are tracking - like one pupil is still slightly larger than the other, but he's still medicated to help him rest. And with the introduction of seizures, I think they want to focus on that to start with.

Thank you again for all of your well wishes and prayers - we absolutely need them right now.