Happy Easter everybody!

Hi folks - another day with not much progress (remind me not to be in
hospital over a Bank Holiday again.)
Charlie seemed fairly bright today, and has been out of his bed the
whole day - either wandering around the ward with his trolley, playing
with his friends at their beds, or sitting in his chair.
He also left the ward for an x-ray, and to go to the Easter service at
the hospital chapel with some of the other kids from the ward. The
chaplain organised a little egg hunt, and Charlie was delighted to
find three eggs. He was also given another big Easter egg and a book
about the Easter story. On top of that, the NHS Easter bunny had
visited the ward last night, so he awoke to another egg at the foot of
his bed.
One big triumph today - it was the first time I did his INR test for
his warfarin levels, and it went really well. He complained briefly
after I jabbed his finger, but by the time I was dripping the blood
onto the test strip he was already saying it had stopped hurting. We
don't need to test again for a couple of days (and his INR was perfect
at 2.3!)
As I said yesterday, Charlie had a BIG pocket of fluid by his right
lung - all in all he drained 560mls of bloody fluid yesterday. It was
old blood, so obviously left over from the post-surgery period. On x-
ray this morning, his chest looked much better, but there is still a
small pool at the base of his lungs. His drainage has slowed right
down again today and is clear again, but I think he needs to keep
draining for a day or so before there's any chance of the drain coming
out.
His back is sore as he is very stooped and hunched when he is walking.
He's obviously trying to avoid pulling his scar or chest drain, but is
now getting referred pain in his back and shoulders. Poor little fellow.
We also took the dressing off his central line wound (on his neck) and
also the dressing that was over the holes left by his two removed
chest drains. Needless to say, our sticking-plaster-phobic son was
none too happy about this, but we got there in the end, and his drain
sites are looking bette already after being exposed to the air.
I'm not sure what the plans are for tomorrow - we'll just have to wait
and see.

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