Cardiac Surgery Day 3

Pain Management and Chest Physio were the themes for today. With the morphine fully out of his system, the codeine and panadol meds were required to keep him comfortable. Ethan's pain threshold is such that it is really hard to say when he is in pain. This morning, the registrar layed down the law with the nursing staff and said follow the prescribed doses and timing, do not wait for him to ask for anything. He needs to be comfortable and pain free so that he can cough to clear his chest and to cope with the chest pounding the Physio staff give him.

The Heparin (blood thinner) was stopped this morning, and the chest drain tube removed at around lunch time - with a small dose of morphine to assist.

The afternoon Physio session was out of the bed, playing with some cars, trying to get some more movement happening, all to assist the chest.

His mood has been up and down, although it perked up when Micka (from Challenge) brought him the PSP to play with in the afternoon. This should keep him entertained over the weekend.

His sats for the day were a bit up and down also, hence the mask this morning after Physio.





Physio - hard but necessary









Thanks to Challenge for the loan of the PSP