Responding To Treatment

We had another long night here in the NICU. Aaron did not saturate well the majority of the night. The right upper lobe has completely colapsed and a large portion in his lower left lobe has colapsed also. After a chest "thump", suction, and 12 hours of antibiotics were in he began to turn a better corner. The remaining portion of lung is responding to treatment and has started to saturate much better. We hope that we have caught this early.

He will be given a chest "thump" followed by suction every 6 hours (morphine will be on board as well). Regular chest films will also be taken to check on his progress. The latest film this morning showed a slight improvement. He will remain on his antibiotics for the next 7-10 days. Right now he is pretty wiped out and is heavily sedated. He is ridinig the vent which allows him to use his energy to fight off the pnuemonia. We hope he has enough spunk left in him to do this.

In rounds this morning they announced he had a urine output of 7.8 yesterday. His edema I would say is aobut 90% gone, he still has some work to do in his trunk area. His blood pressure is elevated and he is receiving meds to keep that down. (mine would be too if I had pnuemonia!). The most likely cause of the pnuemonia is just being on the vent for so long with all that fluid. It just happens.

We pray for continued progress and just plain tenacity on our son's part. Its hard to believe he is sick when we look at him. Compared to what he looked like just a week ago, he looks amazing! Then you see him choke and gag and fight to cough up the junk in his chest and know he is in some serious trouble.

My mother brought the kids up this morning to see their brother. In case things don't turn out as we hope and pray for we want them to have lasting memories of their brother. I was only able to get about 15 minutes of sleep since last night so I am a walking zombie. I plan to go home and get some much needed zzzz's while Ronny watches over our little one. (Ronny pretty much slept most of the night. The alarms every other minute apparently didn't bother him too much). The sacrament was brought into the NICU this morning so we were able to partake. Afterward our Attending stopped us in the hall and told me I could go home now, Aaron would be ok today while I slept. I appreciated that. He was in Aaron's room much of the night as were several other staff. Our wonderful nurse wasn't able to sit down once last night and Aaron was her only patient. When things got dicey they moved out the other baby so we are in our own room once again.

Thank you all so much for your continued prayers and service on behalf of our family. Words can't express how grateful we are for them. I know the Lord watches over us very closely and gives us the strength we need when it is most needed and comfort when we so desperately seek it. I know he gives that to us in many ways, most of which come from you. Thank you.