Return of Puppy, Welcome Duck

Now that Aaron is doing better we thought we would bring the puppy photos back. During this time we added Duck. Aaron seems to really like Duck and so do the nurses, so welcome Duck!

Aaron was weighed yesterday and came in at 2430 grams, 800 grams down from his biggest weight. Down over a 1 1/2 lbs. He has about 2 more pounds or about 1000 grams of fluid to lose but he is looking soooooo much better. He is doing well on the Drager, the nitric is off and the tanks removed from his room. So far the most he has shunted right to left is 6 and that is only during "cares" where we are really messing with him, and it has only happened once. We are anxious to see his echo results tomorrow. Both Ronny and I decided it was important for me to be at rounds this morning with the new doctor so I sent him to church with the kids and headed up. Things were pretty smooth today and I was able to discuss Aaron's course of action with him. Ironically they did not round on Aaron until after 12:00 so I could have gone to most of church and still made it or attended the sacrament service at the hospital. I'll know that next week.

Assuming the echo looks the same or better they will start to wean his milrenone tomorrow. He said they will do this very slowly and keep a close eye on him. I told him he was my kind of doctor, although the last doctor did a great job with his new ideas! His feeds were increased to 4 mls every 3 hours today and his fluids kept at the same level. He is tolerating his feeds very well so far. His urine output has increased and his catheter was removed yesterday. His morphine has been set to PRN (as the nurses feel he needs it) and his standard narcotic has been changed to methadone. (Yes the same stuff they use for heroin addicts, its long lasting, and yes I did call my bro-in-law about it!) . Today he got both methadone and morphine as they were making the change so he slept most of the day. Ronny is there now and said he is awake and alert and very calm. His side continues to leak but has gone from 100 cc's in 4 hours to about 25 in 4 hours so its slowing down. This is fine as we would rather he pee it out so that his body isn't losing electrolytes. His sodium levels are back to better numbers as are his glucose and triglyceride levels.

At the end of rounds the doctor came to me and said he was concerned about the 2 week Attending rotation with Aaron's case and had heard I was as well. I about fell out of my chair! I said I was. He said that before he goes off next week he plans to call in the incoming Attending and review Aaron's history thoroughly and make recommendations as far as a continued course of action and that before he goes off he and the new doc will agree on what that is and brief Ronny and I on it before leaving. Again, about fell out of my chair! I thanked him and told him we really appreciated it and that this was what we have been asking for for some time. He said he is very hopeful that our current course will work but that this week is going to be extremely important and will tell us quite a bit about Aaron's future. Instead of telling me how serious Aaron's prognosis is he just asked me if I understood everything, asked if I agreed with it, and was ready for the outcome. I appreciated the upbeat way in which he asked and told him that we were ready to move forward.

So here we go.....Forward!

p.s. Just got tonight's weight 2200 grams!!! Down another 2oo today! Forward.....