Today was not the best day Caden has seen. The doctors had to place a new drain tube into Caden’s chest between his ribs. This drain will allow some non-blood fluid to be drained from an area called the Thoracic duct behind the heart and lungs. This duct is were a bunch of little vein like tissue gathers liquid that is mostly fat cells and delivers the liquid into the blood stream. Caden has a leak of this duct or the tissue that comes together to form the duct. This is not uncommon for his type of surgery. The duct is very fragile tissue and can easily be torn or nicked during Aorta repair. Most patients heal fine with a drain and by eating things with a lower fat content. That said, Caden has been put on a formula that contains very little fat. This should minimize the amount of liquid collected and promote faster healing. This is a game of wait and see. This drain placement is nowhere near as serious as the ones that were put in place last week when his chest had to be reopened. The up side of this drain is that it relieved the pressure being put on Caden’s lungs that was causing him to not be able to take very deep breaths.
The doctors did remove the other central line running directly to Caden’s heart. All of the work today has made Caden more comfortable. He had a very fussy morning. The doctors and nurses believe that his fussiness was most likely from the pressure buildup caused by the collection of the fluid.
Caden started practicing his sucking skills with a pacifier today. This is a new skill for him even though he is two weeks old today. He has never had to suck because he has had a ventilator tube in his mouth from the day he was born until yesterday. He is still getting fed though a tube at this point. He will get a swallow test before they attempt to feed him by mouth. They will do this test with a barium substance in front of an Xray machine. This is of particular interest with Caden since there can be some GI track problems associated with Di George Syndrome. Thankfully there have been no other symptoms associated with Di George other than the congenital heart defect.
Please keep Caden and the rest of our family in your prayers. These days are expected in the recovery process of an open heart surgery, but they are still not easy days for any of us.