Thursday, July 2, 2009

Day 70 in the NICU

Today is day 70 in the NICU and Gaines will be 10 weeks old tomorrow. I try not to count the days but its impossible not to. As I see it, as each day passes we are one day closer to going home.

Brittany's mom is visiting us this weekend and held Gaines today for the first time. She also brought Reed a stuffed animal. Its a little red crab that has been named Herman. As we left the hospital this afternoon and walked Brittany's mom to her hotel, Reed sat in his stroller and talked to "Herman" the whole way. It was pretty funny.

Gaines has done okay today. His oxygen requirement on CPAP was at 30% this morning and decreased to 28% by this afternoon. We are hopeful that his oxygen will get back down to 25% like it was before "the nasal cannula experiment" (as I like to refer to it). They did try him on nasal cannula again today during a bottle feeding and he didn't do well. Apparently he just needs a little more time for his lungs to recover. While it was great that he made it 24 hours on nasal cannula a couple of days ago, it probably allowed "pockets" of his lungs to collapse. Since he is back on CPAP those "pockets" of collapsed lung should resolve themselves. As they resolve themselves his oxygen requirement should continue to decrease.

Basically, from "the nasal cannula experiment" we learned that he has made great progress over the last two weeks. It was only two weeks ago that he didn't last five minutes on 5 liters of the nasal cannula. Just a few days ago he lasted 24 hours on only 2 liters. This is very important because a transfer home would possibly require him to be re-intubated to the ventilator unless he can sustain the nasal cannula. Even though Brittany and I really want him home, we and the doctors feel that re-intubating him on to the ventilator would be a step backwards. Oh, and by the way, we should have an answer from our insurance company sometime early next week regarding a possible transfer.

At this point, Brittany and I feel that the possible transfer is in God's hands. So many pieces have to fall into place for the transfer to occur. We feel that God will put all the pieces in place if that is what is best for Gaines. If the transfer doesn't occur, we feel like that is God telling us that our journey in DC is not quite over. Either way we should know something soon.

Beau

4 comments:

Hewett Happenings said...

Don't lose heart. 24 hours is soooo much better than 5 minutes. He is a strong little guy, and doing amazingly well.

So glad that Reed and Herman got along. It's bad if the crab doesn't like you. lol

Have an amazing 4th in our nation's capitol.

Continuing to pray in Oklahoma...

Hokie Grandma said...

We are still praying down in Charlottesville. We used to go to the rehearsal of the Capital 4th on July 3rd on the lawn of the Capital. If they are still having the celebration it is worth it to go - a little easier to go to the rehearsal than the real thing.

natalie said...

You are so faithful.

We are faithfully praying for you all.

Footprints Ministry said...

We are continuing to pray for Gaines and your family!I know there are many things that have to happen in order for him to be transfered but I know the Lord is going to help Gaines reach all of his goals and He is going to provide a way to get him home.
If you need anything please don't hesitate to call.