More setbacks

Last night Riley's left chest tube put out a surprising 45cc of fluid in 2.5 hours. That's significantly more than he's put out in an entire day. As of right now, it's up to 70cc in the past 16 hours. The CT surgical team is putting him back on the Diuril. Recall that the Diuril was discontinued three days ago by the cardiology team, apparently without consulting the surgical team (or without members of the surgical team communicating to each other). The surgical team doesn't want to muck with something that's working. If the diuretics are keeping him dry, don't change anything. The hope is that the tubes could come out, the diuretics would keep him dry and in a week or so the fluid cavities in his chest would "seal off" allowing them to slowly wean him off of the extra diuretic. So no tubes are coming out today.

If the right tube continues to have no drainage, it will come out tomorrow. They will need to give Riley an IV to administer some sedatives. If (and it's a big if) the left chest tube stops draining (basically no more than another 15-20cc) they'll consider pulling that one tomorrow as well. However, the tube has already put out another 10cc since the doctor said that, so it would have to be 10cc or less in the next 24 hours, which doesn't seem likely.

Also, Riley threw up last night after eating his dinner. He had to be talked into taking the last few bites. From now on, we're not going to try to force him to eat. He won't tell us if he's in pain or feeling stomach distress. At this point, we'll give him as much as he wants when he's hungry and stop forcing the issue if he's not. Apparently GI distress is a common side effect in post-Fontan patients. They're adjusting to the increased pressures in the lower half of their bodies.