all Snuggled Up

I have been here with Bryton for a couple of hours now and everything is fine. He is stable and all of his normal labs are coming back fine. They did have to remove the PICC (peripherally inserted central catheter) line that was going in his right arm because some of the gram negative bacteria were sticking to it and making it hard to flush and get a blood sample. One of the Dr.'s explained to me that since they really need a good line that they can pull blood from, so they will be talking to the surgeon about inserting a CVL. This is a line that will be inserted by a surgeon through a tiny incision in his neck and will go in directly through the jugular. The surgeon would come into the NICU and everything would be done right here at his bed side. It will take about an hour to do, and that line will be in there for a while. They would give him something for the pain, and also a paralytic to prevent him from moving around while the surgeon is working. This is not a sure thing, just an option to be considered. I just spoke to Dr.Tuttle and she said that they will be looking to see if there is and appropriate insertion site on his other arm before they decide wether or not to go through with the CVL, but that is all going to have to wait until friday. Everything is looking good for now. He is stable and in what they call a Snuggle Up, which is basically like a little tiny baby sleeping bag, and they still have the k pad under him to make sure he maintains his temperature, but the nurse did put a gel pad under him to make sure he doesn't develop any flat spots, and I think it also helps make sure that his posture wont be affected in the long run. So that's all for now. I'm not sure if we'll be hearing much more tonight, but if we do, you will know about it.

P.S.

If you click on the PICC and CVL links above, they will take you to Wikipedia for a more comprehensive overview of what the both mean.