Carter update

On Thursday morning, Jeff called from the hospital and said that Carter had done so well during the night that they were going to extubate him. This was incredibly great news! After four days of being on the ventilator, it was a huge relief that he didn't need it anymore. They pulled the tube out of his throat, and his poor little voice was so hoarse when he cried, it made me so sad. After a breathing treatment and some suction, they put him on some nasal oxygen to see how he'd do. There was always the possibility that he'd have to go back on the nasal CPAP if he wasn't getting enough oxygen, but we thought we were done with the ventilator.

Since then, he has done very well. He was pretty miserable all day Thursday and Thursday night. I'm sure he felt awful. His throat probably hurt, he was trying to shake off all the sedation meds he had been given, and he was probably just as sick of the hospital as we were. I was so happy to hear his voice again, the crying didn't really bother me. Until about 1:00 am when I was desperate for a little sleep. I knew he must be so worn out, and that eventually he would have to sleep, but he held out. He'd sleep for a few minutes at a time and then wake up and cry. The nurse came in to check his vitals at 1:00 and I about passed out on the bed. I vaguely remember her asking if she wanted me to feed him a bottle (he still wasn't allowed to nurse until he got the hang of feeding again. There was a lot of coughing and choking involved the first few times).

Finally, after being up and down to the point of not really remembering much of anything, at his 4:00 feeding, he fell asleep. And we both slept until 7:30. The worst part of it all was that I couldn't walk around the room or really wrap him up. He still has monitors, oxygen tubes and his picc line to worry about, so we were confined to a 2 foot radius next to his bed for any and all comforting. I would have loved to put him in bed with me, where he loves to snuggle, but that was not an option.

Friday morning, the pediatrician came to see him and took him off the oxygen for a test run. He didn't pass, but started desatting a little, so he put the oxygen back on and turned it down to 1/8 of a liter, just a "trace," as they call it. He was still breathing fast, but his last chest xray looked better and his lungs sounded better. All good signs. Jeff spent all day with him while I tried to get things caught up back at home. Jeff can handle things at home, but the dishes, the laundry and the general cleaning gets neglected. So I spent the afternoon trying to put the house back together. Last night I went back to the hospital to spend the night there. He was so much happier, almost like the little boy I remember from a week ago. He slept 2-3 hours at a time and didn't have any of the fussiness he had the night before. He looked at me for a long time, and I thought I just might get that first smile out of him, but it didn't come. Soon, I know.



Now, we are just waiting to see if we can get him off the oxygen altogether. He is still breathing faster than they would like, so the Respiratory Therapist is still suctioning his nose to see if that helps. He still has a couple more days left of the antibiotic, and the doctor doesn't want him to come home with the picc line in, so it may be a few more days before he is ready to be out of there. We are getting anxious, but trying to be patient. We really want him to be well before we bring him back home, even though the kids seem to be over their sicknesses. It will be nice to be a family again.