Taking the Good With the Bad

Mason has taken some steps back on his vent, mainly due to a conjested right lung. He has some secretions in his lung that they are working to break up and get out. These showed up late last week. This is common for babies who have been on a ventilator for a while. Over the weekend his pressure went up from 26 to 27 and rate from 45 to 55. Today his blood gases look better and he is back down to a pressure of 26. They will take another gas this evening to see what it looks like. The docs want to get to 25 or below for the next belly closure.

On a good note, Mason is no longer vomiting and there is less intestinal bile coming out of his stomach. The docs are also starting to hear bowel sounds which means his intestines are starting to "wake up" and hopefully push things downstream instead of into his stomach. If things keep continuing to improve, they will start to feed him Pedialyte to see how he reacts.

The docs are continuing to go down on his sedation and morphine. He is tolerating all of this well. The nurses are trained to look at his facial expressions and body language as a signal that he needs more morphine or sedation. If they sense he needs more, then he gets a boost. So far, he is sleeping comfortably and when he is awake he looks around and occasionaly smiles.

The most exciting news is that his Mom and Dad got to hold him for the first time last night. We were able to sit in a rocking chair and hold him for a while. It was a wonderful feeling! I will try and post some pictures later.