Yesterday and the Plan for Today...

Wow, what a day yesterday! I anticipated it to be an emotional day, but I was done with the day by noon and wiped out by 6 pm. Alexander sent his mommy and daddy on an emotional roller coaster ride yesterday.

The day started off with seeing that Alexander's oxygen saturations hadn't recovered from the hiccup he had on Saturday night (saturations dropping from 80's to 50's and 60'). Yesterday morning, his saturations  were bouncing from mid to high 60's to low 70's. The doctors put him back on Nitrate for an hour to see if that would help and it didn't. So, we were then told that no one really knew why his saturations were low but that they would keep digging to find out. During rounds, the doctors suggested to decrease his dopamine (heart medication), to complete a few pressure support trials, and that tomorrow, they would try extubating him. A pressure support trial is when Alex has to initiate taking a breath and the ventilator will help support it. When they decreased the dopamine, his blood pressure dropped, so they need to increase the dose again. Alexander's saturations continued to bounce around, until the first pressure support trial happened. All of his saturations looked great! His blood pressure was a in a nice range, his heart rate was good, and his oxygen saturations jumped up to the high 70's! They completed the trial for an hour and then put him back on support. As soon as they did that, his blood pressure dropped and his oxygen saturations went back down to the 60's. It was obvious then that today would be the day for extubation. His respiratory therapist warned me that a few more test would need to occur before extubation and that his saturation would drop, turning him blue and he wasn't kidding! I lost it at one point when his face turned very blue and his lips were purple, with his oxygen saturations in the 40's. However, at 5:30 last night, Alexander was extubated!! He had no problems with it and is on a high flow of oxygen now. His vocal cords are irritated from the tube so he doesn't have much of a voice. We are hoping to hear more of it today.


Today's goal is to have some of his medications weaned and start decreasing the flow of oxygen he is receiving. Once he tolerates the decreased flow, he can start being fed again through his NG tube. Hopefully the NG tube will be removed soon and I can start nursing again. Alexander is being given a different kind of medication to help him with his"Glen head". Overall though, it seems that Alexander is feeling much better. He is certainly looking better!

Alexander has been awake off and on today, looking at us and looking around the room. We are planning to give him lots of rest but lots of cuddle time too! Keep the prayers and positive thoughts coming for a continuous speedy recovery for our Superman! The sooner we are out of here, the sooner everyone can see him! :)