PICU Day 5: Surgery Success

 At Time Out for Women this year, one of my favorite presenters, Laurel Christensen Day, challenged us to write down one thing we really, truly fear.  She spoke about conquering our fears with faith.  As I accepted her challenge and tried to write down my fear, nothing immediately came to mind.  As I pondered and listened, I eventually had the courage to write down one thing that I sincerely fear.  I wrote: "I fear trials."

After putting Isaac on the more aggressive sci-fi ventilator and monitoring his progress, the doctors decided it wasn't working as well as they had hoped at clearing out the junk inside his sick, collapsed lung.  The chest tube that was placed soon after we arrived here, however, WAS producing again (after some intense manipulation by our awesome nurse.)  The doctors discussed whether to try and move the chest tube to a spot where it could continue to drain the empyema, or take Isaac in for surgery.  It was determined that he needed to undergo VATS: Video Assisted Thoracic Surgery. 

 They prepped all of his tubes and medications.  I signed all of the forms, and off we went to General Surgery.

 Under normal circumstances, sending my child through these doors would be nerve wracking.  On this day, however, I was looking forward to cleaning the junk out of Isaac's chest and getting him on the right track. 

 I parked in Surgery Waiting and downloaded Sheri Dew's new book about Women and the Priesthood.

 And before I knew it, Isaac was out of surgery and back in Room 9.  The surgeons removed large amount of "jelly-like" infection which was walled off by "rind" that was forming, which they "scraped" off and sent to the lab.  They placed this larger chest tube to continue drainage.

 After surgery it was time to brush teeth, read stories, say prayers, and go to sleep. They also placed Isaac back on a regular ventilator, which is less frightening than the vibration percussion vent that they were using for the past two days. 

With the empyema draining, the hope is that his collapsed lung will have room to expand and begin to function again.  In order to stimulate that lung function, they have reduced sedation, which means that I get to see those beautiful green eyes more often!  Isaac is still under IV sedatives, but he is less in a coma-like state and more in a sleepy, relaxed-like state.  He is semi-responsive and answers some yes-and-no questions.  He even smiled when I told him I was taking this picture this morning.

They are slowly reducing the rate and pressure at which Isaac is ventilated.  If he tolerates the reductions, they will wean him from the ventilator with the goal of extubating him tomorrow.

As I sit at my son's bedside on Day 6 in the ICU, I am finding that there was no need to fear trials after all.  You see, "No pain that we suffer, no trial that we experience is wasted.  It ministers to our education, to the development of such qualities as patience, faith, fortitude, and humility...it is through sorrow and suffering, toil and tribulation, that we gain the education that we come here to acquire" (Orson F. Whitney in Faith Precedes the Miracle by Spencer W. Kimball (1972), pg 98).  I have felt the reality of Christ's promise that "I will not leave you comfortless; I will come to you" (John 14:18).  Even more reassuring is the knowledge that this peace and comfort is available regardless of the trial I am facing, because I am convinced that there may be even more difficult trials in my future, trials that my be less public than a stay in the ICU with fewer encouraging words and prayers from all those that love us.  Regardless of what we are asked to suffer through, I am learning that when we have faith, we truly have nothing to fear.