Day 6 & 7

Beth and I fell ill yesterday so my apologies for not updating.  We both woke up with nausea and diarrhea so we weren't able to see Shawn.  It tore me apart not being able to be with him, but it was for the best.  So with that I'll update two days in this post.

Monday started rough but ended well.  Shawn is now completely off his paralyzing medication and he woke up within an hour of them stopping the line.  He's moving his feet and hands which will help push the excess fluids in his tissue back into his blood stream.  He's been opening his eyes too!  Beth and I were pretty thrilled about that.  However, he did not like being able to move at first and it was a little tense for a couple hours Monday morning.  He was grimacing in pain it looked like, so they upped his pain meds.  He would fight the ventilator and hold his breath which plummeted his oxygen sats into the 40s so a couple of the doctors had to come in and just watch him for a bit.  He settled down a little after noon and he's been pretty good since.  Sats holding strong in the upper 70s to lower 80s.  Moving his little feet and now taking his own breaths!  The ventilator still makes sure he gets his 28 breaths a minute but it doesn't stop him from starting one on his own.  If he initiates a breath the vent will help him and make sure it's not like breathing through a straw.  The monitor will show a red line on breaths he starts and a green line on the vent breaths.... it's pretty cool and I have another thing to watch!

Although we were sick and unable to see Shawn yesterday we were able to get a hold of the nurse in charge and get updates.  Shawn was good and stable all day.  They stopped the direct nutrition line (TPN) and he's just straight breast milk which makes Beth happy!  He's down on his dopamine drip and tolerating that well.  His x-ray from yesterday showed that his right upper lung was slightly deflated.  This is common for kids on the ventilator.  So he is now getting lung percussion therapy every two hours where they take a little suction cup looking device and pat his upper chest and back.  I'd like to give a big shout out and a thank you to Jill, Shawn's nurse yesterday, for keeping us informed.  She called us yesterday afternoon so we could FaceTime with our little guy!  So awesome!  Thanks, Jill!