07-02-11

You may notice different lighting in this photo than in the last. While Emery was going through the worst of his withdrawals we were thinking of things that may make him more comfortable. His critical care team thought he may be experiencing ICU Delirium in addition to his withdrawal symptoms. He had been in the "bay" in the PICU for nearly three weeks at this point. The bed space he was in did not have a window and it was right next to the nurses station where people were talking and passing by all day. He seemed to be particularly worked up when his curtain wasn't closed because we realized he was looking right at the fluorescent lighting near his bed space. Until they said something it didn't even occur to me to complain about his location- I just figured they needed the rooms for older kids who needed more privacy. We moved him to a room with a window and a door to shut out the noise, at least at night.

By the next day he seemed to be keeping more normal hours. We made sure we kept the window open so he could see daylight and night time. We usually tried to rotate him every couple of hours so he wasn't constantly in the same position but since he is more awake and could see the sunshine outside he just kept turning toward the window. At this point he seemed to be getting more comfortable between the new room and the new pain meds, so they thought it would be a good time to try extubating him again.