Day 4 Update

On Friday, Sam had either one or two desaturation episodes (the attending doc keeps calling them "tet spells" if you want to google it), but he was able to recover on his own with us or a nurse consoling him, but he didn't require meds to get his sats up. He had four or five tet spells yesterday and again was able to get his sats up on his own. 

The tet spells start because he gets agitated because he's hungry or is uncomfortable. On Thursday, they put in what's called an arterial line--it's like an IV that continuously checks his blood pressure.  The line was on the inside of his leg by his foot, and he kicked it out on Friday. This made him uncomfortable, which triggered a tet spell. They're checking his BP now with a cuff instead. 

Last night at about 8:00 he had a serious tet spell. His sats dropped quickly. I tried holding him, the nurse used the cpap to try to give him more oxygen, but his sats stayed below 50. A respiratory therapist came in to help with the cpap, and the attending doctor and a few other nurses came in. The doctor decided to put him back on a medicine that helps with blood flow and they started him on a sedative that has kept him pretty heavily sedated. After about an hour of really low sats (lowest it got was 4!), they came up to the 60s and eventually the 70s and 80s. He's back on IV fluids, and they increased the amount of oxygen he's getting through the cannulas.  He has taken a bottle twice this morning, which is good. 

The attending just came by to do his rounds. They're going to wean Sam off the sedation and IV fluids to allow him to eat like normal. 

Tomorrow during the cath procedure, they're going to hopefully do an atrial septostomy (expand the hole in the top part of his heart) to allow higher volume of blood flow to try to increase his sats. If they can't do it tomorrow for some reason, they'll do it Thursday during the surgery. 

Yesterday, Sam got some toys to look at 

We are so incredibly thankful for all of you who have called, texted, sent facebook messages, visited, etc. to ask about Sam and let us know you're praying for us. Sam's tet spell last night was very scary. Please continue to pray for us.