Baby Steps

The last couple of days have been a bit more settled here. Noah has been able to wean down a small amount on his oscillator settings over the past 2 days. He started at a MAP (mean arterial pressure) of 34 and an Amplitude of 62 last thursday. Today his MAP is now 22 and his Amplitude is 50. He is also off his insulin and keeping his sugars fairly steady other than the odd hypoglycemic episode every once in a while. He recieved a dose of albumin during the night and we've increased the lasix infusion and his kidneys are starting to finally get rid of some of that excess fluid. He is still very puffy, but it is slowly improving. He was weighed this morning (a HUGE undertaking!) and he is 8.5Kg. This is 1.2Kg more than when he came in, so he still has lots of excess fluid and his lungs still look quite wet on the xray. These are all baby steps, but signs that his body is trying to heal itself. Seeing the oscillator settings decrease gives me hope, and at the same time, seeing how far he still has to go can seem so hopeless. It is still very much a wait and see game.

The gram negative bug came back as the dreaded pseudomonous again. He has grown this a couple of times in the past and seems to be colonized with it, so I'm not suprised that it has reared it's ugly head once again. He is growing it in his blood and also his lungs. He was fever free the past couple of days, but this evening he spiked a fever, so he was recultured once again! Praying that nothing grows!! His platelets were improving, but this evening they have dropped once again so we are getting close to transfusing. Still waiting on an answer in regards to the possible antibody in his blood.

It's been a week on the oscillator already. A week since I've seen Noah's eyes..seen his smile...heard his cry. I miss him so much.