Odds and Ends

Jaisal was stable overnight, which was expected due to the paralytic. His chest x-ray this morning showed improvement in his lungs and we'll be talking a little later about removing his paralytic. Unfortunately the drug is either on or off, so we need to find a way to determine if he can manage without the drug, but it's hard to test for that when he's on the med. We'll develop a plan with the PICU team after rounds are over (they want to make sure their hands are free to deal with any possible complications).

Here's a picture of the doctors at rounds. There are usually about 15 people collaborating on Jaisal's care every day.

Jaisal's primary pre-transplant liver doc has been on service this week. Dr. W. is ridiculously smart and experienced in liver transplantation, having helped to develop the process for living donor pediatric liver transplantation, but he's definitely also an arrogant guy. He doesn't really like to explain his rationale for why he does certain things and when he does, part of the explanation inevitably involves some sort of reference to his experience/genius. Over time, we've gotten used to processing the way he conveys information, but it's really funny to watch the visceral reactions of the PICU residents and fellows when Dr. W is talking. Kirk and I tend to spend our mornings doing Dr. W impression in anticipation of what he'll say at rounds. We're getting pretty good and might take our show on the road.

In other entertainment news, my knitting has hit a roadblock. I tried to teach myself a close stitch via youtube video, but can't quite get the last few stitches right to truly tie up my test project. I've recruited a nurse trainee to help me get it right today. Other arts and crafts for today will include making snowflakes. Our main nurse made one as a gift for Jaisal, and I'm going to help her make more to decorate the floor.

Lastly, Kirk went to see Scott yesterday, who is steadily improving. He may try to stop by and visit Jaisal today. From this picture, can you guess that just five days ago he was undergoing a major surgery all for Jaisal?