Puffy Boy

Nolan had a pretty busy Monday. For the most part he was in good spirits and easily consolable. I was told he had a pretty good night with minimal issues, except for a large blow out, which I know he is good at. When I got into the room I noticed his face was pretty puffy. They started him on a Lasix IV in hopes to decrease the fluid, however he is still pretty swollen (just in the face). It looks like someone punched his eyes, the poor thing.

When the transplant team came by Dr. Lal did his assessment and Nolan had a period of coughing and throwing up in front of them all, which I was kind of happy about so they could see for themselves what he has been doing. It was decided to shut feeds off for the day, run fluids and let his belly rest while the course of antibiotics did its thing. (They started up the feeds again tonight, and so far so good.) We should know the results of the labs that were drawn by tomorrow, nevertheless, he has been on antibiotics IV for almost 48 hours, so we should have the infection under control if there is one present. Once we got Nolan calmed down, I gave him a bath and got him cleaned up because we had a couple visitors today!

Our first visitor was a good friend of mine that works for the same hospital system that I do. Krista Lazar is a physician assistant for cardiothoracic surgery, so I know she was anxious to see Mr. Nolan and check out CHP. We had a fun day chit-chatting, having lunch and spending time with Nolan. It was nice for me to have her check him out, too. Hearing her opinion definitely gives me peace of mind.

Our second visitor was a long-time friend, Heidi Poland Lawlor and her kids, Maddie and Robert. They happened to be in Pittsburgh because of family, and took the time out to come see us. It was so nice to see Heidi and how big her kids have gotten!

Later on in the day Nolan got an ultrasound around his neck because of the swelling in his face to make sure there was no clots from the biopsy. He also had an X-ray of his chest to check his lungs and heart. Both I have not heard about, so I am assuming no news is good news. Nolan had a visit from physical therapy and occupational therapy today and did well! He actually sat by himself for a few seconds, reached out for toys and could probably roll on a flat surface.

Tomorrow we should know the results of his biopsy and where we go from here. I know that he has to be tolerating his feeds better before we are discharged, so I am betting we will be here through this week. ALSO, tomorrow at 11 am I meet with our transplant coordinator. She will start training me on how to administer medications and teach me all I need to know about caring for a transplant recipient.

And so our new life begins.

#nhos
teamnolan.weebly.com