Down Day

Yesterday wasn't a great day for Andrew. The amplitude on his hi-fi vent was back up to 34, which is a bit of a step back. The nurse seems to think it's because he's been more active recently, and is fighting against the ventilator a bit. He was awake and moving around enough that they put up a mobile for him, but some of his activity counteracts the benefits of the hi-fi. I think if he can relax and take it easy (not an easy task when there's a tube down your throat), his numbers will head the right direction.

Everything else has been pretty stable. The surgeon came by and took off the tape and gauze on his chest, leaving only steri-strips over the scar. That relieved some of the redness on his chest, which may have been due to tightness from the tape. The steri-strips were re-taped, and his chest now looks better.

It looks like the feeding process will probably take a while. They've been trying to feed him for about 15 hours. They put a specific amount (5cc's for example) into his NG tube, which deposits it directly into his stomach. Three hours later, they use a syringe to extract whatever is left, so they can see how much is being digested. After the first feeding, there were 2.5 cc's left. They put it back, along with 2.5 more. The next time they suctioned, they retrieved 9 cc's (5 + 2.5 + 1.5 of other stuff). Like I said....long process. His stomach hasn't had to function correctly for two weeks, and now it needs some practice before it will work correctly. They'll try this out for a week or two before considering surgical options.

One final note....at the moment, Andrew looks a bit like a space alien. His cute little face looks just beautiful, but his head is very swollen with fluid. Moving his head around causes the fluid to move from one side to the other, but we'll have to be patient while his body actually processes (and discards through his urine) all the extra liquid. The last couple of days have been good for that....his urine output was higher than his fluid input, but it seems like it's all in his head. My cute little alien.