Yesterday was fairly uneventful except for trying to source another suction controlled chest drain which ended up coming over from Leceister!
Otherwise things had gone smoothly all day, we had gradually weaned his ventilation down and were talking about him possibly coming off it today which was amazing!!
Dylan had other ideas. He had an episode overnight where he was literally fighting with the ventilator and not allowing it do it's job. His breathing was laboured, his heart rate went up, he developed a fever and generally took a bit of a downward plunge. The ventilator rates had to be turned right up as did his sedation so now he is not breathing for himself again this morning..
This infection has just taken over and knocked him back so much! He has very little fight in him either as he is still neutropenic. This means he has no white blood cells to fight off the infection. He is on so many antibiotics, but of course if it's viral they won't do anything at all to help.
It's like being stuck between a rock and a hard place.. the best way for Dylan to fight all this infection and the lung collapses is to be awake, breathe for himself and take deeper breaths, and cough up all this nasty gunk but he is struggling to do so because of the infection so it's a catch 22 situation and I don't think anybody fully knows what to do for the best..
We have officially now been ventilated for longer than last time too which is disheartening. Every day he is ventilated puts him at more risk of more infection.. more risk of cysts bursting and the lungs collapsing.. more risk of struggling to get him off it.. more risk of drug withdrawals when / if he eventually does get off the ventilator.. more risks in general!!
I just feel so helpless, there is literally nothing else we can do to help him it is just up to him to fight it, but what if he can't?
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