Jul 23, 2007

Slow Moves

All the changes today were relatively minor, but they were mostly in the right direction. His vent rate is down from 14 to 12, his nitric oxide was dropped from 5 to 2.5, and his oxygen is still down at 25/26. They've stopped his Versed entirely and took him off a morphine schedule. They've replaced the Versed with methadone to deal with any withdrawal symptoms, and they're still allowed to give him extra morphine if he appears to be uncomfortable or in pain. He took one morphine dose earlier today, but hasn't required any this evening. No major desaturations, no noticeable pain, and no inconsolable tantrums.

He's continued to have some bile coming up from his stomach, so they re-inserted his NG tube for suction. This is normal, and his intestines may take a few days to fully recover from the surgery. They'll wait until this clears up before they start to feed him again. Sorry that there's not a lot to report, but being off the medication and continuing to come down on vent settings is definitely progress. With the ventilator running this low and his nitric oxide creeping down to nothing, changes may be few and far between....they're only measuring his blood gases every six hours, which will move to eight hours when he gets further past his surgery. Once his stomach clears up they'll have even less to worry about, and I may start posting a bit less frequently. I'll definitely get all the milestones in there, but he's been (thankfully) a little boring during the past couple of days.

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