Day 24 Update: Once again, Ethan had a pretty good night. No issues at all. He didnt really react to the lasix as much as they would have liked... each diaper (three changes) last night came back 10ml, then 6ml and 6ml. They were hoping for more 10-15+ but oh well. He is looking better as you can see in the picture. Even though he is 850 grams, they are estimating his dry weight to be around 750 grams... so call it another 100 grams to lose (1 gram = 1 ml). He is still puffy and you can see the edema in his head (hence the cone shape) but all this will mold back to normal.... Sure, youd like to see him shaped correctly but aesthetics dont mean much as long as he is healthy and continues to improve. He isnt moving much more than before... currently moving both hands, bending at the wrists, and can squeeze his toes on both feet. You can sort of see his personality coming back with facial expressions. His eyes are not open but you see the scrunching of his eyes and forehead when they fool with him... but then he raises his eyebrows, fighting to get those eyes open, when mommy and daddy talk to him. Hes on his stomach now for no particular reason... just an effort to maybe shift the fluids around and why not? He does look pretty comfy. They are starting to ween his hydrocortisone (steroid for his lungs) since there are no real issues there. His oxygen saturation is still maintaining in the 90s with low settings around 24% oxygen. They did bump his tidal volume (TV... Number CCs of air they are pushing per breath) up to 3.0 from 2.8. The doctor felt the additional expansion may help the fluids in his chest (not in his lungs, rather, the edema collecting in his chest area). He is also at a Rate of 50 (rate is the number of forced breaths per minutes). Overall, he is still low on his settings. A tidal volume of around 4.5 cc/kg isnt much machine work... so with his dry weight, he isnt really on a ton of support. This is all good so we minimize long term lung damage... sure, we still want him off the vent and on a CPAP but were just risking the lungs at this point to ensure he is as comfortable as possible (i.e., dont want to challenge him too much) while he recovers. He does have a follow-up brain scan coming up Thursday night/Friday morning... they do them overnight when it is quieter. Were really hoping that things are improved or the same. Since it was evidence of bleeding (with clots), I would guess no more clots as a good thing assuming there is no more bleeding. I suppose, at minimum, we are praying that there is not additional fluid built up and there is NOT evidence of additional bleeding. He is back on breast milk again... always nice to get the natural stuff. They are starting him slow on that, 1cc/6 hours. Also, Bo (our fury baby), should be OK. No tears, breaks, etc.... The vet thinks he maybe pinched something in his back... Which maybe happened chasing my brothers cat on the wood floors. He took home a couple meds that should help. We noticed some thoughts/prayers for our pup too so wanted to make sure you were updated on him too! =) Thank you for your continued prayers and support. #EthanStrong From an administrative perspective... If you would, please email me your EthanStrong shirt pictures (original size/quality), if possible, so they print better quality than FB may show. You can email me at derek.deveaux@gmail. If you didnt get a shirt, they are available through Friday night, again, through the same Bonfire Shirts site.
Posted on: Wed, 21 Jan 2015 20:43:10 +0000
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