Sorry for the uninformative post last night. I don't really like to write anything unless I'm awake and alert enough to give a relatively good summary of the days events, but there's also some pressure to get something posted every night....I certainly don't want to make anyone worry unnecessarily.
Andrew's doing pretty well with the new plan. They moved him onto his stomach and are letting the lung slowly reinflate. We saw an x-ray from yesterday morning and it had already expanded a bit. One indicator of how well his lungs are working is the total volume of air that he inhales and exhales with each breath...low volumes mean congestion or "air trapping," which can cause hyperinflation. His volumes have been good and his CO2 levels have been better than the last couple of weeks. They turned down his breathing rate slightly (to 30 from 32 breaths per minute) and will be able to come down further with additional positive test results. They'll also be getting x-rays to follow the progress of the left lung.
One of the other issues that cropped up on Wednesday was a blood test that showed some signs of infection. He hasn't really had any infections that have gotten to his blood before, so they put him back on antibiotics and took various cultures (mucus, blood, urine, etc.) to see where the infection was developing. So far the only positive culture has been in his urine, so he might have a little urinary tract infection. Hopefully the antibiotics will nip it in the bud.
The doctors had another discussion about additional procedures/techniques that may solve the problem with his bronchus, and nobody had any new ideas. That means we're moving forward with the current plan, and we'll see how he does with it. If his lung inflates (fully, but not too much) in the next few days, they'll most likely let him wake up and see if he can continue that stability.
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