Day 296: Still In ICU

Overnight was fairly eventful once we got settled in the ICU, but there was still little sleep. As part of being in the ICU for close monitoring, that means close monitoring via frequent checks of vitals in the room. While we are somewhat comforted by the level of attention Cristian is getting, it does make sleep difficult.

Nonetheless Cristian woke up early (5am early) but surprisingly had energy. He was up out of bed playing with toys and eventually sat on the windowsill. He did briefly complain of nausea so we gave him some meds for that. Good sign is that he went all day without throwing up. Another good sign is that he had a little bit of an appetite and ate some snacks.

Throughout the day they continued to run tests to try and identify what’s causing the issues for Cristian. Via blood tests and an ultrasound we were able to confirm that his pancreas looks normal. We also did another ultrasound and confirmed that he has no clots in his upper body. Throughout the day the tests showed that his red blood cells were holding steady which is really good news, but his platelets were still dropping. By the evening his platelets were back down the levels that they were when we arrived yesterday so they did another transfusion.

More good news is that we still have no signs of infection such as a fever. The doctor did explain that because he has virtually no immune system at the moment that he could still have an infection but his body isn’t able to fight it off and develop a fever. As a precaution they have started antibiotics. Hopefully they are not needed.

As we get to the end of the day it is still unclear what is causing the issues. It is possible that the vomiting was a result of being anemic (very low red blood cell count) but that doesn’t account for the platelet behavior or the other levels that are out of balance. By tomorrow evening we should have results from blood tests to help rule out infections, but there are still other possible sources for these issues.

We are going to stay in the ICU for close monitoring overnight and into tomorrow. We will be here until Cristian isn’t needing so much external help and frequent infusions of blood products. Since we don’t know the source of the issues, we also don’t know how long it will take to get to that step.

This also means we have an unknown timeline to go home. First step is to get out of the ICU and back to the “normal” hospital beds. From there we will have additional monitoring based on what we determine to be the underlying source of these issues. We hope to know more soon, but continue to pray for quick healing of our baby Cristian.