Finished with Surgery!

Brett in recovery

Brett's bronchoscopy and broviac placement was successful this afternoon, and he was able to be extubated before leaving the operating room, which is always a sigh of relief for us. He spent about an hour in recovery then was able to come back to the room. Although I haven't talked face to face with the pulmonologist yet, she left me a note saying that the lungs were very clear, so of course that is good news. They did some suctioning and some washes to get some cultures. So far, his cultures from Thursday afternoon at clinic have not grown anything. Also, he has continued to steadily gain weight every day he's been in the hospital! This is wonderful!!!

As for the broviac, they moved the procedure up to today because last night the IV in his foot failed as well, and there just weren't any more good veins to choose from to put in a new one. They decided to just leave him alone without an IV for the night and go ahead and get the permanent line placed today. We were very happy that this was decided, because the hand and foot IVs are very painful to put in, and when they fail it is very painful for Brett when the medicine is being put in. As for our hopes for a port, he is still just too little. However, since he is bigger than he was last July when they put the previous broviac in, they were able to place a larger catheter, which should be more stable and less apt to fail. This is his 3rd broviac line.

So for now he is sleeping soundly back in our room, and I expect the rest of the night to be uneventful. Thank you for checking in with us.



This is what the recovery room looks like on a holiday - empty!


Getting a chest x-ray to be sure the catheter is placed correctly