The Road to Recovery

Sorry no update for a while. As they say, 'no news is good news', right? Ethan is holding his own. Recovery has been slower than the doctors (or I) would like but Ethan is making baby steps every day. They determined that the fluid in his lungs was due to pneumonia, which crazy as it sounds was a best case scenario. He has been on antibiotics for the past seven days and it has helped although he does still have fluid and he is coughing quite a bit.

Saturday was the best day. Ethan was extubated and I was finally able to hold him after ten long days. On Sunday he was able to eat by mouth for the first time. I had gone back to Oceanside to visit Braden and Cameron for a quick 24 hours, but Mike was with Ethan for his feeding. Unfortunately Ethan threw up all of his food. I came back Monday at 1:00 and was able to feed Ethan pears and breast milk and he kept almost all of it down. We weren't so lucky with his next feeding of squash and he threw up pretty much everything. Yesterday he threw up his peaches and refused to breast feed but took breast milk from a bottle.

Why do I go into such detail about his feeding? If he isn't able to keep down his food and eat at least 3 ounces every 3 hours then they will not discharge us. Often times with heart babies this can be a struggle. I'm hoping that it's just due to his gut not having to work for eleven days and that everything will kick in as it should soon. We have been fortunate to not have any feeding issues in the past with Ethan and I'm hopeful that as discharge comes near that will be the case.

Ethan is still in CTICU but they have completely taken him off his milrinone today. If his blood pressure is stable for the next 24 hours then he'll be transferred to the floor. (one step closer to home!) He is slowly being weaned off of his pain medications and is not suffering to badly from withdrawals. He is currently receiving a blood transfusion as his white cell counts were down and they don't want his heart working to hard to produce them. So the transfusion should assist in giving him a little kick start.

The doctor thinks that if he continues recovering at the pace he is at now that he may be able to go home by Wednesday of next week. I'm okay with that but would really like to get home by Sunday so I can be back home with the family.

Please continue to keep our little man in your prayers.

Much love and thanks,

Renee