Bo's Surgery Update 10:00 12/711

A long, anxious night.

At 7:50 last night we got a call from the overnight doctor about Bo. He was waking up from his anesthesia and was having complications. Before his surgery, Bo was in so much pain that he was hyper-ventilating with a deep frenchie guttural growl. The prolonged agitation caused a lot of inflammation and damage to his throat. The fear was that upon waking up from his surgery and finding himself in a strange environment, unable to move his legs, and having difficulty breathing he would immediately become agitated again.

Agitation = labored breathing = more swelling = difficulty breathing = more agitation. It's a cycle.

Human tracheotomy

 It was decided that Bo needed a tracheotomy (medical procedure to open his trachea, or throat, bypass the swollen areas, and allow air to pass through a tube). He was critical at that point, and the decision needed to made immediately. With audible instructions from the on call Dr., they began to intubate Bo and prepare him for his emergency tracheotomy.

Tracheotomy tubes

The Dr. then said that Bo is in not in the clear for the night. That they will work on him and try to stabilize him. She verified that I had signed a Do Not Resuscitate form (DNR - they have 3 levels at the hospital at different costs. 1. Do nothing, 2. Outside Compression Only 3. Open chest cavity if needed). She then asked if I wanted to be contacted, no matter what time of night, if I need to come down to "see him". "Of course. Please call me". We hung up, and the conversation sunk in.

How can you sleep after a conversation like that?  The answer is that you don't. I tried. Two glasses of wine didn't even help. I woke up every 1/2 hour or hour checking my phone, thinking maybe I missed a call. No call came. No news is good news.

This morning I talked with Dr. Sullivan about Bo's status. The news was good and bad. Bo is stable, heavily sedated, and breathing through his tracheotomy tube. He is still very agitated, so we agreed that I should not visit him today to reduce the chances of him becoming more agitated. The bad news is that he is still not responsive in his hind quarters. I know knew this was a possibility, but I was hoping for the best possible news.

This does not mean that he won't recover. The pressure from the disc herniation has been relieved, but there is still plenty of swelling. His paralysis and incontinence is due to one of two reasons. It is either due to a compression on his spinal cord caused by the herniated disc (now the swelling is effecting it, and as the swelling goes down he will regain control) or he has some permanent damage and the question is "how much". Dr. Sullivan says that going through this is a two week commitment for him to try and recover.

I think he looks like this, sleeping.
But I know he looks
completely different.

The only thought that runs through my head is "how much can his little body take?" He is so small. I can't imagine his little body with all those tubes. But I know he is strong. I will get another update this afternoon.