Another Missed Post

Sorry if I concerned anyone by not posting, especially this close to Andrew's extubation date, but it was completely unintentional. I had lots of work to do last night, and ended up asleep on the couch....and after I've been asleep, I'm no longer responsible for my actions.

Thursday wasn't quite as eventful, but still went pretty well. There was no spitting up, which is a great improvement, and they've started increasing the feeding volume by 1cc per day. He's now at 7cc per hour...a slow start on his way back up toward 25 per hour.

They unexpectedly put in a new arterial line yesterday. I think they really wanted to have one in during his time off the ventilator, because it will be much easier to monitor his progress. There's still a chance of it falling out, but they've pinned one leg to the bed so he doesn't kick quite as much. If they can keep it in for a few days, that will hopefully give them the confidence they need to leave it out the next time it stops working. They only had to sedate him temporarily, and went right back down on his ventilator settings when it was done.

The current plan is to extubate this morning. I have work for a couple of hours, but I'm trying to be there as much as possible, so I'll drive down during my last call. I plan to spend all day there, for at least the next few days, in order to keep him calm, change his diapers, and generally be on top of any issues that arise. He's still in isolation due to a single bacteria colony from about a week ago, so we have to wear disposable gowns and gloves when we walk into his room. This takes a little while, so it will help if someone (me) is already in the room to calm him until the nurse arrives. With the delay until Friday, Andrew will no longer have his primary nurses (they're off this weekend), so we're also trying to make sure that experienced nurses are on him during these critical few days.

He's been a little grumpy at times recently, but most of the time we're able to keep him calm by sitting next to his bed and holding his hand. This is certainly not an onerous task, so I'm happy to do my dadly duties.