The JCJC Blog

We’re home!! We got home on Wednesday and all is well!! Thanks for love and prayers.

Jackson’s chest tube is out, he’s off oxygen, and his sats are still in the 90s. Thank you God!!!

From my iPhone again so forgive oddities in the format please.

So! I have mixed news to share. Really it is mostly good news with a surmountable hiccup along for the ride.

The good news is that the drainage from Jacksons chest tube has come to a near standstill. We are thanking God that the change in diet and passage of time did the trick beautifully. Jackson had been averaging an output of 160ccs a day for most of the last week. Then yesterday he put out about 115 and so far sixteen hours into torY he has only drained 30cc. Woohoo! The Nurse Practitioner was excited to reccomend to the surgeons his afternoon that we remove the chest tube.

However, around 1pm today she came in after reiewing this morning’s xray again and informed us that she found a very small pneumothorax above Jackson’s right lung. A pneumothorax is a small pocket of air trapped inside the chest cavity, which is at the moment preventing the full expansion of one of Jackson’s lungs.

This is not as alarming as it sounds, and in fact is not particularly unusual in cases like Jacksons. Also, the treatment for any normal person with a pneumothorax is to insert a chest tube, apply suction, and give oxygen to compensate for the under-inflated lung. Thankfully for Jackson he already has a chest tube and oxygen, so the solution is simply to reapply suction to his chest tube, and hopefully by morning the bubble will have been withdrawn. Once that is confirmed by xray I fully expect the tube will be removed very shortly.

Hopefully, if all goes well, we may be able to be home by Wednesday! Thank you all for your prayers and please continue to pray that Jacksons chest is free of bubbles in the morning.

Hello, loved ones. It’s starting to feel a bit like Groundhog Day today. Though we love having visitors, most everything else seems the same today as it’s been for the last several days. Jackson continues to drain fluid from his chest, though we’re hoping that with this new diet it will be some less today. We have heard anything from the surgeons yet today. Their weekend rounding schedule isn’t quite as consistent.

Basically everything involving his recovery is just waiting on his drainage at this point. Once the tube is out other aspects of his recovery are expected to improve as well; such as his dependency on oxygen. Also, the tubes removal will mark a strong decline in Jackson’s vulnerability to infection. So! Mostly nothing new today. If we hear anything different from the doctors this afternoon we’ll be sure to post about it. Please keep up the prayers for Jackson’s drainage. Love you all!

New format. Let me know what you think? It requires a bit of tweaking.

Hello everyone. Well the Internet has finally bit the dust. So I’ll be posting from my phone for the foreseeable future. Expect slightly shorter posts!

Anyhow, Jackson is still draining a lot this morning, so the tube won’t be coming out today. They have changed his diet to fruits and juice only because solid foods and fats create more fluid. They’ve also upped the doses of his diuretics to help dry him out.

So there’s no conclusive idea of when we’ll be ready to be discharged. Hopefully the diet change will help the drainage to stop. Once the tube is out we should be out the next day.

Jackson is doing really well. Today especially he’s been very active, wanting to play more than just sitting around. We went for a walk and met a HUGE Great Dane. Jackson loved her even though he could almost walk under her without bending over.

Anyways we’ll let you know more as we know it! Take care and please continue praying.

SO! We slept well last night, thank you God. We were fortunate to get a bed on the window side of the room which has a double wide cushioned bench seat that doubles as a bed, so Chelsie and I are sleeping comfortably with Jackson.

Not a whole lot of exciting news to update today. Jackson seems very close to normal; slightly more irritable, but generally very happy and talkative and sweet with his nurses. He even said “Cheese” for his X-Ray this morning.

However, Jackson’s chest tube is still draining enough fluid that the doctors want to leave it in at least until this afternoon. At which point they will again reevaluate his output and decide whether to remove it today or wait until tomorrow. Their expectation is still that we should be going home over the weekend, and in preparation they are preparing Jackson’s medication from the pharmacy. The outpatient pharmacy is closed over the weekend (huh?) so they have to get all of his meds together today, or we would be stuck here until Monday. Eww, gross.

Speaking of ‘eww, gross,’ which one of you taught Jackson that word? It certainly wasn’t us, and he exclaimed it this morning as he completely rejected the delicious cream of wheat I made for him. Sheesh… Anyways, you’re forgiven. Hope you all are well, and more to come as we know it!

Good evening Friends and Family!
This afternoon finds us in a very similar situation to this morning. Jackson’s drainage tube is in and he’s still draining. The amount of fluid is minimal, but still more than the doctor’s would like to see before pulling the drainage tube. Therefore they have ordered the tube to stay in and to reevaluate in the morning. They’re optimistic that we’ll be able to remove it at that time. Chances are we’ll be looking at going home Saturday morning. Other than that, very little to report! Cambria is having a good time with Grandma Huntsinger and we’re very excited to see her when we get home.
Thanks again for your comments and support! (and balloons!! Jackson loves them, thanks Malones!)

Good morning, loved ones.

More progress from Jackson T. Yesterday afternoon during their rounds the surgeon and doctors took Jackson’s drainage tube off suction and it’s not just draining with gravity. They also suggested that they’d hopefully be able to remove the tube today, and if all was well to send us home tomorrow!

Gross in some situations, but important and exciting in others, Jackson finally had a good BM last night after some laxative and a glycerin suppository. Yay! The last thing he needs is more excess gunk hanging out in his abdomen, so that was fun. Especially because he did it right before the nursing assistant (named Adonis, too funny) came in to check his vitals, so he had to change it. Wahaha.

Jackson walked two and a half laps all the way around the floor yesterday evening which helped get some fluid out of his lungs, get his bowels moving, and tire him out for sleeping. He slept quite well, but after about 2am his oxygen saturation levels were starting to get kind of low (I can’t believe 88% is low now) and his pulse was increasing. We sat him up and about 8-12 hours of built up fluid came pouring out in a matter of minutes. His sats shot up to the high 90s, and his pulse dropped down to a very happy place. You could see his thorax just go “Phew.” We all slept better for a little bit after that.

This morning we spoke to his Nurse Practitioner who said everything looks good with his drainage and other healing factors. She’s not going to take the tube out for now until after the surgeon and doctors round at 4pm at which point they can decide whether to take it out this afternoon or leave it until tomorrow morning. If it’s left until tomorrow morning it’s more likely that we’ll go home on Saturday instead of tomorrow, but whatever is best for Jackson, of course. She also said that she heard a little bit more fluid around the right side of his chest than is ideal, so we’re taking a few walks this morning to try to work that out of there.

Please continue to pray that fluid buildup in his chest slows to a point that he’s able to eliminate it all with urination, and for his general comfort and recovery. He’s in better spirits still today, chatting it up with the nurses, and putting Tigger on top of his head and laughing about it. He’s also coughing more which is helpful on getting junk out from around his lungs. Thanks again for all your love and support.

Good morning, all three of you! :-p Just kidding… four of you. Anyways, enough of the sarcasm.

Jackson is my hero, for the record. Overnight his personality switch flipped and he has both come to terms with his situation, and is feeling much much more like himself. Medically he is still doing very well. We have yet to hear from the attending physicians and surgeons this morning regarding their plan for the day, but we are hoping for good progressive news.
Hopefully we’ll be able to remove the NG tube from Jackson’s nose, and we know they are planning to remove the central IV line from his chest. Both of those will make him much more comfortable. The central line would have been removed last night, however after a periodic check of Jackson’s blood last night they decided he needed a little bit more to up his red blood cell count, so once he has received that the line can come out. Thanks so much again to those who so generously donated. If anyone needs AB+ let me know!

We are also hoping, and expecting really that we’ll be going upstairs today. Sadly that means a good chance we’ll be giving up our private room, but that’s the beginning of the end of our stay. Hopefully we won’t be surrounded by the Mexican Flu up there. Yikes!

Chelsie and I took turns sleeping and staying with Jackson last night and boy, are we glad we did. He woke up once for each of us, and in each case his personality improved. Fits of fake hiccuping and giggling replaced protesting moans and crying while talking about EVERY family member being asleep and how much he loves them took the place of talking about “owies.” I was wearing my eyeglasses during my 2-7am shift and the first thing Jackson did when he woke up for some tests at 4am was stick his hands down in between my lenses and eyeballs and then pull them out and laugh hysterically. It’s really wonderful to have him back.

More to come as we know it!