Port Placement

Carter got his port put in today. This is something that we've been looking forward to and dreading at the same time. Now he won't have to have dressing changes on his arm every week. But in order to access the port, the nurse has to use a needle. I'm not sure which Carter would prefer.... but it doesn't really matter, now does it. So we had a check-in time of 8:00 this morning for the surgery. They didn't take him back to the operating room until about 10:45. I was amazed, once again, at how well he did on an empty stomach and having to wait for that long! While waiting, he played with his daddy:

We were all pretty tired....

Warning! This is the saddest picture ever! This was right after surgery. His nose is a little bloody from having a breathing tube during the procedure. He HATED all the stuff on his chest. Poor little boy, goes to "take a little nap" and wakes up with a very painful chest and a whole mess of stuff taped to it. Most of the time, there won't be anything on the outside of the skin like this. Shortly after he woke up, they came and took a chest x-ray to make sure it was in the right place and then they took the PICC line out of his arm. Yea, it's gone! Carter was happy about that. I think. It could've just been the morphine.
Before he went to bed tonight. He was not a happy camper. His chest hurt and he was exhausted. He asked to go to bed at about 6:30.
Unfortunately, he woke up a few hours later with a fever. He and Dennison are at the emergency room right now. It's looking like they'll probably have to spend at least tonight in the hospital. They will be doing a blood culture to check for infection and will have him on antibiotics in the meantime. It's killing me to not be there with him right now. Both of our other kids were already asleep for the night and since the baby needs to be wherever I am, it's just so much easier for Dennison to just take him alone. So, since I can't sleep now, I blog.

Tune in next time to see how the emergency room visit goes....
Sorry to leave you hanging.