Another Day

Aaron has decided to keep playing the game of life it seems. He weaned off 3 of his meds yesterday beautifully. Last night they began weaning the setting on his respirator. That made me nervous. His 9:00 p.m. cares were dicey and he did not tolerate them well, especially being suctioned. He went way up on his oxygen needs and his nurse had the RT turn the machine back up. This morning's cares went about the same except he needed 100% oxygen. The doctor wanted to start weaning him down on his nitric back to his original settings but Aaron's stats were not picking back up all through rounds. A chest film was done this afternoon to look at his lungs and it looks like when he gets suctioned his lungs collapse a tad and with the pressure on the respirator turned down he has a hard time opening them up again. The order came in to turn the machine's pressure back up just so they can keep the pressure up on the lungs to prevent the pressure from the excess fluid to collapse them. A blood gas was done to see how things looked and he had his best results in days after the machine went back up.

They ran tests to see if his sodium levels are higher. If they are he can start receiving lasiks to help flush the fluid out. His renal system seems to be starting to work better as last night his urine output increased although not enough to overcome the fluid he is still receiving. Last night the nurse heard bowel sounds for the first time in days as well. The doctor said today that if Aaron continues on this course of recovery then they will start to re-introduce food Monday afternoon or Tuesday morning. They will go much slower this time as they will have to coax his bowel system to start up again.

The paralytics were stopped yesterday and he is starting to wake up. He is not very happy when he is awake as I'm sure the pain from the fluid pressure is extreme. Today we saw his belly button again and he started his forehead crease when he's upset. He is also starting to be able to move his arms and legs and he immediately put his hands to his face. His poor little tongue and lips are so dry. Ronny and I have been wetting a small gauze square and allowing him to lick water and saline off of it. He really likes that. His morphine has been put on a pump so that every two hours they turn on the pump to deliver his dose instead of getting in and bugging him. We love that he is waking up more and opening his eyes, mind you he is giving us a look like "what happened to me", but the fact that he is looking at us and responding is wonderful. Every one from the unit, staff and other parents we have met, have been coming to check on Aaron. Several of the staff have shed tears with us and sat in the room with us as we watched over him. After Aaron was starting the recovery process several of them stated they couldn't sleep at home after their shift and many called repeatedly to get updates. They said they were so worried they would come back to work and his name would be gone from the board. This little one is so loved and I pray someday I will be able to tell him how much that is. I also want to tell him how much he has scared us all when he misbehaves as a teenager!

We felt that after he started to come down on his oxygen needs today that we could finally leave the hospital for a time. I made my way to the car to find out it wouldn't start. Nice! Turns out when the dome light in the back gets left on for three days the battery dies, hmm imagine that. Because of the way the van was parked we couldn't get into jump it so we had to call the tow truck. An hour later we were finally headed out to go pick up the kids and head home.

Today is our 13th wedding anniversary. Happy 13 to my great husband. I sure do love you and am happy we are able to lean on each other during this chaotic time.