05/28/2007

Well, from a respiratory standpoint, Emery is doing pretty well. It looks like the nitric has kicked back in. On Wednesday Erik and I went upstairs to the lounge for the monthly pizza party, and when we left Emery's room his oxygen requirements were about 60%, but we figured it was because of all that had happened that day. When we came back down, he was sound alseep requiring 40% oxygen and saturating 98 to 100. It's stayed that way ever since. In fact, last Thursday the doc went down on his CPAP pressure from 11 to 10, and today when I came in they went down from 10 to 9. At 8 is where they try high-flow nasal cannula. His PCO2 today was 44, which is excellent for him. It looks like surgery is scheduled 'TENTATIVELY' for Thursday, which is good and a bummer at the same time. If Emery didn't need surgery, we'd be on track for getting him home this summer. The surgery puts us off a bit from a respiratory standpoint. He does need the surgery, though, and yes I am worried about him enduring general anesthesia and going back on the vent. I know that he will not be extubated right away because breathing will be too painful at first for him. He will have a tube coming out of his side and he will be unable to take full breaths. I hope when they do extubate him that they won't have to go much higher back on CPAP for him. I suppose I'm putting the cart before the horse again. Right now we just need to make sure he tolerates surgery and comes out of it well. Don't forget to look at the new pics of my growing boy! I hope everyone had a great weekend!