Let Me Help You With That

Our little man apparently wants out of his bed really bad. Yesterday afternoon, the nurse was working on removing his arterial line, which is a gradual process. Well, Drew must have thought she was taking too long because he wrapped the tube around his long, skinny Lyon toes and yanked it out. One less tube, I suppose.

Drew has continued to perform well on his CPAP trials and is up to 2 hours without any forced breaths from the ventilator. He is doing so well that he may be extubated (off the ventilator) by the end of the day!

The Hematologists report yesterday was also all good news. Although we still await results from the 2 send out tests, results from all the other tests have come back negative of any blood disorders.

The dr's have also closed off Drew's ventricular drain to see if his body will absorb all his cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) on its own, which would mean no permanent shunt. He has been absorbing all but about 20 cc's every 12 hours and the doctor feels that most of what is draining is being caused by gravity. Please pray that his fontanel (the soft spot on the top of his head - I think that's how it's spelled) remains soft and that his body absorbs all that CSF so that we can hold our son in our arms again.

He has been tolerating the breastmilk very well and even had his first real poopy diaper since Saturday. They continue to increase his feeding rate - he's now up to 5 cc's per hour. He's also sucking on his vent tube, so hopefully once we get him off the majority of his tubes and IV lines, I'll be able to nurse instead of pump.

It's hard to believe our little guy is a week old today. He's had to endure so much in his short little life, but he's a fighter and we know we'll soon be home and our family will be together again.

As for Alyssa, you could probably tell from the picture with Justin and Katy that she's having a great time. Of course we miss her dearly, but we know she's in good hands. Thanks, sis, for all your help. Thanks to my brother, Kevin, too for posting the pictures.

As for Ryan and I, Sylvia Roberts and Paula Ward, two of Ryan's coworkers came to visit last night. They brought a laptop for Ryan and took us out for dinner. Sylvia kept us laughing. The laptop is wifi enabled, so we should be able to check email and update the blog outside of the library hours...if only we weren't so technologically challenged. Hopefully we'll get that up and running soon.

Thanks again, to all of you, for your thoughts and prayers. It is through your help that God continues to work His miracles on our son.