Chest Tube Is In!

Jude's surgeon and the attending neonatologist just stopped by the waiting room to let us know that the chest tube was inserted with no real problems. Praise God!

Approximately 100 cc of fluid was drained from Jude's chest once the tube was inserted, and the neonatologist indicated that the fluid has the same general appearance as the parenteral nutrition that was drained from his abdomen almost a week ago, but there's no certainty yet about exactly what kind of fluid it is. A sample of the fluid has been sent to the lab for testing, and the preliminary results of the testing should be back within a few hours. The lab will also culture the sample to determine the presence of any organisms or bacteria. We'll report more on this when the preliminary results come back.

It sounds like, as yet, no significant bleeding has been detected as a result of the chest tube insertion. The neonatologist led us to believe that the worst kind of bleeding would be seen right away and would be the result of damaging vessels upon insertion of the tube. There's a little bit of blood in the fluid that was drained, but it's hopefully just the result of relatively small amounts of blood oozing, which doesn't appear to be a huge concern right now and seems to have been expected. Please pray that no significant bleeding will occur henceforth!

For now, the plan is to let Jude rest and recover a little bit from this procedure, then the medical staff will begin to gauge how draining the fluid has benefited Jude and begin to work on inflating his lung. Tomorrow morning, the attending neonatologist will assess Jude and determine whether a small dose of dexamethasone might be helpful in moving him toward coming off ECMO.

Thanks be to God that the tube was inserted without incident! Please pray that draining the fluid will give Jude the space that he needs to begin showing more notable improvement!