The Morning After

They had to keep Elias very sedated and paralyzed overnight. They also had to put his arms in  restraints, but if Elias really wants out he can get out of them because of his arm/hand anatomy. God Bless that boy, every chance he got he was trying to extubate himself or pull at one of the many attached apparatus. He was really fighting this morning! They were adjusting the settings on the vent all through the night and have found what seems to be working the best. Elias is now breathing over the vent. He is doing well and the ICU folks seem pleased with his vitals. We are waiting for the ENT doctors to come and put the trach tube back in. Then they can extubate and vent him through the trach instead until they are ready to move forward. We are not sure what the plan is for the chest tube . The draining is minimal and seems to be as they expect it to, although no one has really commented much about this. Elias looks very peaceful at the moment. It will take several days for things to heal, but it is unclear how long we will remain in ICU. It seems like so far so good in terms of the surgery itself, but it will be a few days yet before they can determine if it was enough to correct Elias’ airway issues. Hopefully we will know much more about the plan and timeline shortly. Thank you all for your continued thoughts and prayers. It means so much to us.