[tri-med] Re: Ella Marohn

>>Yesterday, Ella had a g-tube placement and all went well.  After surgery, she 
got agitated (they think because of the pain) and her sats dropped and they had 
to intubate her.  Her sats keep falling now and they are stumped as to why.  
Anyone have any words of wisdom for them?
Alex did this after a minor surgery at 12 months of age (it was when he had his 
tonsils, adenoids etc removed) - we still have no idea why. In fact it got so 
bad that they had to shock him back into action. Its the one and only time that 
he has had this reaction even though he has had many procedures and surgeries 
since. 

They did warn me that the reaction you are describing was possible after he had 
his g-tube placed due to damage to the vagal nerve. Have they considered that? 
Our kids can have the nerves running slightly different paths through the body 
than most people consequently its very easy for the nerve to become injured. 

The vagal nerve is a pretty important nerve for autonomic functions and because 
it runs through the stomach it can be injured or even just inflammed during 
g-tube placement. That could cause it to malfunction until it settles down. 
Remember too that infammation from surgery can take a while to happen. (from 
hours to days post surgery - thats why they keep you in hospital)

Other thoughts.......
Alex would get agitated FROM the morphine, and it would increase his blood 
pressure, heart rate etc - its a paradoxical reaction and many of our kids have 
the same reaction. The problem is that this is the same response that most 
people have to pain so they would increase the morphine and make it worse until 
he started having apneas and his sats would drop.

Normally the reaction to morphine is to drop your heart rate, blood pressure 
and decrease the rate of breathing which can lower your sats.

There are so many things that it could be - from a heart condition to just 
plain exhaustion. I will pray that he recovers quickly. A word of advice though 
is that whatever it is the parents should ask what drugs were used during the 
operation and after. Then keep a record of these so that for the next surgery 
they can forewarn the surgeon. There are a couple of anaesthetic drugs that 
cause Alex to have adverse reactions - by warning the surgeon he can either use 
different drugs or be prepared.

Life consists not in holding good cards but in playing those you hold well.
                                            -- Josh Billings

Keep Looking For Rainbows!!
   _--_|\
 /Karen \
 \ _.--._ /
          v Karen, Mum to Alex (12 years, T-18 Mosaic)
http://members.optushome.com.au/karens

                  Building ___ooOOoo__ Rainbows
                       www.trisomyonline.org
                  Families Helping Families On-line

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