02/23/2007

Well, he made it 5 hours. They reintubated him at 3 o'clock. I guess what happened was he had a temper tantrum and kept trying to tug at the tubes in his nose, he was uncomfortable and angry, and even with Ativan couldn't calm down and finally got pooped out and angry and they had to put him back on the vent. I'm not sure what the settings are. I did ask if he could cry and, yes, he can cry and make plenty of noise. He was raspy from being intubated for so long, but he was plenty crabby and let them know it! Gotta love my little crabby butt. Anyway, I was slightly disheartened that he had to be reintubated but not too much. Remember, this is a child that has very stiff lungs. The mere fact that he lasted as long as he did is definite improvement. His blood gases got pretty bad and they still aren't great but back in range for him. In an earlier post I said that I wished I could call and hear some great news and I realized this whole week has been that. In the last 3 weeks he's gone from the oscillator to the conventional vent to being extubated to CPAP and he's had great blood gases all week. The next round of steroids might actually get him off the vent for good. Right now, he's back on the vent and he's not riding it. He's still breathing, and the nurse said he pretty much used up all he had today being mad so he doesn't care what anyone does to him. He's just plain old tired. I still feel awful and will not be going to see him, and with the weather I will probably not be going to see him tomorrow either. Thank you everyone for all of the awesome comments today. They mean so much when I get them because I love hearing them and seeing how many people are rooting for him. Oh, and yes I've heard about the 21-weeker going home. She actually will have a shorter NICU stay than Emery. XXOO Sarah, Erik and sleeeeepy Emery