Complications

Yesterday, the doctors decided that Collin's central line needed to be replaced because it was splitting. However, they had trouble yesterday getting his platelet counts high enough to operate. They did three platelet transfusions, and he was finally able to undergo surgery at about 9 pm.

Collin did okay during the surgery, they were able to replace the central line. However, when he came out of surgery and they were trying to wake him up, he would not wake up, he was unresponsive to any stimulus and his breathing was labored. As a result they put him on a manual respirator in order to get him to CT Scan to check for hemorrhaging, bleeding in the brain, stroke, etc. Then they took him straight to ICU. The entire time, a nurse was doing the breathing for him.

Once we got him to ICU, he was put on a ventilator. They did an EEG and left the EEG on him until the morning in the hopes of possibly catching a seizure. They are wondering if he was having what is called "inclinical seizures" (I'm not sure if that is proper spelling) which are seizures that do not exhibit any physical symptoms, they are all internal. They also ran several blood tests and as of right now they are unclear on what is causing him not to wake up. He is mildly sedated, partially to protect him and to help with any pain he may be having. The doctor says that the sedation will not prevent him from showing signs of waking up. The main reason to keep him mildly sedated is to prevent him from suddenly waking up and freaking out because he has tubes and cords and such all over him, including the vent that is in his throat. It will allow them to control how quickly he wakes up and be able to better prepare him to wake up.

He was having problems keeping his blood pressure elevated. They gave him medications to keep it up. As of 6 am, he was showing signs of being able to keep his blood pressure up, so they were backing up on the medications to see if he could keep it up on his own.

The CT scan came back normal, the EEG showed brain activity. They want to do a spinal tap so that they can test the spinal fluid, which would show brain infection or other neurologic issues. However, they cannot do it yet because his blood counts are not high enough.

Heath came up this morning so that Julie could get some sleep. Last night, I (Aunt Sissy/Jenn) and John (our brother) were up there with her, mostly to help her move his things and to provide moral support. We will keep you posted as quickly as we know things. At this point, Collin is still in ICU and is still unresponsive, but that is all we know for now.

Also, Julie and Heath respectfully request that only family come to visit at this time. They are very grateful for such loving and supportive friends, but at this time they would like to limit the visitors to family only - this is also because the ICU unit requires gowns, gloves, etc. in order to go into his room and they do not want too many people going in an out of the room and such. 


As always, we thank you for your love and support during this difficult time. If you have any concerns, please feel free to contact  me (Aunt Sissy/Jenn) by email jenndwilson83@yahoo.com or phone 317-430-0805; Julie is doing her best to answer phone calls but she cannot use her phone in ICU. I am taking the Indiana Bar Exam tomorrow and Wednesday, so I will not be much help those days, but any other time I would be happy to help answer questions or whatever.

We will try to update the blog as quickly as possible.