positive thoughts and prayers requested...

[Ceashels]

Well, there is a good chance that facial reconstruction will happen today, but we haven't heard anything confirming. Plastics is not sure if they will need to plate or just screw the bones back in place but the plan is to go through the brow line to minimize obvious scarring.

BP and ICP (intracranial pressure) have still been issues but the teams are still saying he is ready for surgery.

Here is hoping.

[NikoSan999]

Fingers crossed for all concerned especially Desmond. What a horrible waiting period for the parents. I can't even imagine.......

[pinetree]

Keeping him in my thoughts and prayers. Thanks for the update.

[Ceashels]

Update from Dad:

So Desmond had a great evening and night. He has come off the blood pressure meds and is maintaining his blood pressure on his own with no issues. We have lowered his vent setting to start weaning him off that. He seems to be handling that well, which is nice. His sedation has dropped a bit since this morning, but I think we want to wean him off the vent mainly before we drop it a ton, since he wakes so violently and tries to get the tube out when he does wake.

I am a little worried about him waking, because he will not be able to open his eyes really when he wakes up which is going to be very scary for him. He is overall doing wonderfully, and it will be really really nice to have him awake, though more then likely it is going to be fairly difficult to keep him still and calm once he wakes up.

He has had a great night so far and hopefully we are looking at him waking up this morning, I'll learn more at rounds in a few hours.

Once again thank you everyone for all your support and thoughts and prayers. My Mom said that some food was dropped off today and looks great. He has been getting a ton of cards from his friends at preschool and in the mail that we have been displaying for him, and he love all his new books from all his friends. Everyone's support has been so wonderful in this extremely trying and scary time.

Surgery is scheduled for Monday morning. He is doing so well.

[Ramona]

Surgery is scheduled for Monday morning. He is doing so well.

Wonderful news!!

[oheoh's momma]

prayers for this little fella and his family.. and will continue to pray for this little boy and his recovery..for as long as needed

[mauimagic]

Will add him to our prayer group list - mahalo for the updates.

[Ceashels]

This mornings update:

Desmond just headed back to surgery 30 minutes ago or so. The procedure can take between 4 and 8 hours, they are saying closer to 4, plus an hour on either end for anesthesiology, so most likely 6 hours. We went back with him till he was put under and are now waiting for him to be done. Will updated again after his surgery is over.

Oh and the MRI came back he strained his neck ligaments, so the lucky child will be in a collar for another 6 weeks poor boy.

All thoughts and prayers during his surgery are very much appreciated.

This evening:

Desmond just got out of surgery about an hour and a half ago, and we were finally able to see him 45 minutes ago or so. He looks great. He is now snuggled up in his bed with his stuffed puppy dog. He is still sedated, he still has a trach vent tube, and he now has a couple of drains from his brain and back. He looks amazing though and the surgery went great. It did take about 8 hours, but that wasn't unexpected.

Hopefully this will be his only surgery it looks like the plastic surgeon got everything into place perfectly and was able to use dissolveable plates for everything so no permanent plates.

He probably won't start weaning off the vent until at least tomorrow, and I don't expect him off sedation till Wednesday at the earliest, and I won't be surprised if both the vent and sedation are kept up for a few days longer then that. I am hoping that by the weekend we will be moving out of PICU into a regular room, but who knows. He did wonderfully though and his head looks amazing.

Thank you everyone for your good thoughts and prayers as Desmond had his surgery today, he did great!

Thank YOU Villagers for all of your continued acknowledgements, prayers and well wishes toward this little guy. I greatly appreciate it too.
Cea

[zakity]

I am glad that things are going well. And, thanks for the updates.

[abeautifullife]

Sorry I missed this initially - poor little guy! I'll pray for him. Glad things seem to be going well thus far!

[leighcat]

This is the first I have seen this thread. I am so sorry about the little guy getting hurt. Thank goodness he is recovering and such a little tough guy!! I will pray for a speedy full recovery for him.

[pinetree]

will keep him in my prayers, so thankful he is doing so well.

[Ceashels]

So surgery was done on the face, they have weaned him off the vent, off of most of the sedation, and off the heavier pain killers. Dad posted the following a little earlier today

So, earlier this morning the nurse told him she was going to do something like shift him up in the bed, and he said "OK". Later she wanted to suction his mouth, and he said "No"!!!

A handful of times he's opened his right eye and looked around frantically, trying to follow my voice and visibly settled when I got into his field of vision! And since I kept saying "Can you see me? I'm right here, Des, can you see me?" He said "Yes"!! And nodded!

He's also undoing his diaper frequently (b/c he's a big boy and he doesn't wear diapers, duh), and he keeps trying to pull off the monitor leads. Took a swing at a nurse yesterday when she poked at his eye

They're lowering his nasal "flow" to 8l from 10l, and reducing his narcotic further. Apparently they put him on methadone at some point, presumably to help with the withdrawal issues.

They also talking about moving more of his meds off the IVs.

But he's talking and opening his eye and seeing whats there and processing it! woo! It hurts like hell, though, that's obivous. BOO!! But YAY!!!

[leighcat]

What a trooper! Thankfully kids are so resiliant. I am so happy that he is doing better!!

[pinetree]

Thats wonderful news!