17 December 2010

Jereth in the transport incubator

The transport team from St. Luke's came to our room at 7:30 this morning to get Jereth ready to go. They brought an incubator on a gurney for him to travel in. The set-up included monitors, a machine for his feeds, and air, but the air was not moisturized like he needs. The transport team consulted with Dr. Jansen from PICU about the best method to keep his airways hydrated with the high rate of flow he needs. They determined that saline drops put into his nose every 15 minutes during the transport would keep him from drying out.


On the way



After a diaper change, and then another diaper change because he soiled the new one, they disconnected the hospital equipment, transferred Jereth to the incubator and hooked him up to the transport equipment. He was not happy in the incubator and cried all the way down the hall, down the elevator, and out to the van. 



 The airplane



A transport van set up much like an ambulance took us to the Boise airport where we transferred to a twin engine turbo prop airplane. Jereth fell asleep on the drive, but woke back up crying as he was switched to the airplane. As soon as the plane started to move Jereth fell back to sleep. The plane took us to the Salt Lake Airport where an ambulance met us. Jereth slept during the move from the plane to the ambulance and all the way to Primary Children's Medical Center.

Settled and sleeping at Primary Children's

After we got settled here, Jereth had several blood tests, an x-ray, and an echocardiogram. Thankfully they were able to do the echocardiogram without sedating him as was planned, so the procedure was done sooner than we thought it would be and he got food again sooner than planned. The doctors stopped his tube feeds to make sure his stomach was empty for the anesthetic, but since he didn't need anesthesia he got food sooner.

During the day we got hints as to what the doctors are thinking, but nothing definite because there is a committee that will meet to make further decisions based on today's tests and the information from the doctors in Boise.

It sounds like there is concern that he has lung disease separate from the congestive heart failure causing the majority of the breathing problems. They are also considering doing a "band-aid" surgery to constrict the vessel going to his lungs instead of open-heart surgery because he is so little and will have a better chance of successful open-heart surgery when he is a few months older and a few pounds larger.