Sunday

Seven is pretty much down to his normal weight! He still looks puffy in some areas, so he is probably holding a little extra water weight. He would have lost some weight from the illness, so he'll most likely lose more before we leave.

Seven had a fairly uneventful night. His femoral line stopped drawing. Giving platelets caused him to clot a bit around the port. tPA, a "clot buster," was given to help that.

His calcium was stabilizing so we slowed that drip down a bit.

Seven was much more active in the night. He wasn't given anything to sedate, though, because he wasn't trying to pull tubes out or anything. The nurse said he has his nights and days mixed up. He was moving his head back and forth, and his eyes were visibly moving back and forth beneath the lids. Jarrad was suctioning him as I held his hand and he was squeezing. I couldn't figure out if I was more excited that he was squeezing or that he was deflated enough to be able to squeeze.

Seven was doing so well that the docs thought we could head him down the road to being off the ventilator. First step was to change the setting to MMV which will only help him breathe if he needs it. I don't think he let the machine help him one bit during that part. That is what the docs were looking for. They also wanted to confirm that his blood gas was good. And it was. It looked like he was ready to be off the ventilator. Jarrad and I were really excited. Jarrad had a bit of a bad feeling. Seven was very active, but he still hadn't really opened his eyes.

The doctor had to make sure everything was sounding ok right after being extubated.

He appeared to be breathing great on his own. They had him on a tube that pushes warm, humidified air in the nasal canal. He was doing so great, in fact, that they kept turning down the amount of extra oxygen given.

Slowly, over several hours, Seven started working harder. His heart rate started increasing and his oxygen level started lowering. The respiratory nurse switched him from a smaller machine to one for older kids. That worked pretty well for a little while, but then it appeared that was only a temporary fix. An x-ray was ordered, as the doctors were hearing him sound "wetter." The fluid overload in his body was around his lungs as well. It was taking a lot of effort to fully open the wet lung. The x-ray came back exactly as they predicted. Seven's left lung was wet. This had just happened over the last few hours. The early morning x-ray had looked practically perfect.

Seven was reintubated. It wasn't done in an emergency manner like it had been on Tuesday. All the same, it wasn't pleasant to watch. A paralytic had to be given, so my once active baby went limp again. It was so nice to see his beautiful face after so long. Now it was all covered with tape and tubes again.

Seven is currently back on the ventilator with his oxygen and CO2 levels looking good. He isn't very active again and his platelets are going down again. I'm glad I gave my platelets because they will be ready tomorrow if he needs them. Monday will be full of tests and doctor visits and lots of decisions.