04/04/2007

I can't believe I forgot to update on little love! Today marks 8 days off the vent. It doesn't mean that he is permanently off the vent unfortunately, though I wish that was the case. These are some obstacles that Emery faces. His steroids, though weaned dramatically, will be discontinued in a few days. He will have to make it through a rebound. His nose is now raw and tender from the CPAP tube being down it and it agitates him quite a bit. Even a small amount of swelling can plug up that tube and limit his support. Amazingly, Emery has dodged a few bullets in the past few days. Each morning I've called and the nurses have said things like "don't be surprised if he's intubated," or "he's not necessarily off the vent permanently," and things of that nature. I think I mentioned the bad blood gas episode, and this morning was another dodge-the-bullet thing. I called and the nurse said he had an okay night until she had to change his CPAP tube. It angered him and he bled quite a bit and she couldn't get his oxygen requirements below 100%. The lab come and drew his blood gases while he was angry and hurting. He still had a CO2 of 71, which was amazingly okay for him being hurting and angry and requiring 100% oxygen. After all of that she then gave him sedation. I do not know why she didn't do it before. The past few nights the nurses have been giving him sedation and making sure he was calm and had his breathing treatments before his blood gases. I realized that people can try and keep Emery off the vent and tweak his blood draws and breathing treatments, but eventually someone is going to come in and do things and I can't control it at all, as much as I might want to, so he might go back on the vent, and no matter what Erik and I do, we're not going to keep him off of it. It turns out his tube was placed too deep. The morning nurse came on and fixed it and put him in his swing and he calmed down and slept a lot. We can only hope he will make it through another day and night, especially now that steroids will be discontinued very soon. He had another eye exam today, and the nurse said he handled it like a trooper. There is no progression of the retinopathy of prematurity thus far, so they have to come back and do another in 2 weeks! It's amazing he has made it through these traumas off the vent! He is on a massive support though from SIMV. His weight is down, too, but they aren't concerned because he is on steroids and he's off the vent. Emery is one where the pros and cons must be weighed at all times. I guess I'm soliciting prayers once again. Pray for no steroid rebound and pray that this is his turning point, that new lung tissue grows and this is a step on the road to recovery, oh and pray that he quits being smelly. We haven't really been able to give him a real bath. He is a stinky baby. I do not mind at all, but he does need some help in the hygeine department. (can you imagine if Emery reads this thing some day?)