Weight on the board is 2100 he has been losing some of the swelling weight he put on over the last couple days after surgery.

Not as close to 5lb now.  But that’s a good thing.  Lasics are working.

He is in a cribette again!

He is on 36% oxygen,  nurse today is one that has had him quite a few times.  He had some more brady desat events through the night,  some involving shallow breathing.

A few this morning too. Still trying to figure out what is causing it.

Wife has pointed out that the some of the doctors are saying that it is just him still recovering from surgery but.  

This is interesting because after his PDA surgery about 3 days after they were saying he should be fine and not in pain. His chest was opened up… Kind of odd discrepancies between the two.

While I know no one knows the reason,  there could be more contributing factors.  I kind of think he could just be bruised from his intubation, have a sore throat because of his nasty cough and it must hurt to have all his thick secretions not wanting to come out and just rattle around in his throat. It’s too bad there is no way to help get it out.

Hopefully he just coughs it out and he starts bradying less.

Could be Theofalin is a better drug for him than caffeine, could be a new heart issue, hopefully not obviously. I think we haven’t had a echo cardiogram since we were down at Tacoma General the day after surgery. Might be good to take a look here.  Could be something else entirely.

Wife and I go to base to see chaplain and log into my work account to try and keep it active. It ends up not working.

A call is made to get it reactivated again.  Apparently it had been over two weeks since it had been reactivated and I had still not logged in.

Whoops.  If I knew that I would have made a late night or early morning trip down. It is just so hard to leave when so much can happen so fast. Whoops now I know.  Won’t let it happen again.

I’ll be back tomorrow to try again after I drop grandma off at the airport.

We go and return the rental car and grab a new one. The new one has an even smaller trunk, luggage won’t fit. I go back to the counter,  I can pick from any car k17- k28. Weird selection of cars. Not much better room, I pick a 4 door Hundai hatch back, it is ugly and small but the trunk had more room. Not nearly as nice as the new ford fusion I just returned.

It will work…. hopefully.

Back to hospital for lunch, we meet grandma there.

Then back to NICU, he has been a good boy while we were gone!

Mom heads out and grandma heads in.

1400 cares. 36.8  Poop! Good boy!  Skin to skin time.

RT is hungry.  He keeps going face down and trying to suck on my hairy chest.  Goofy boy. He is happy though.  He high sats it appears to be helping his leak.

The nurse is able to Eventally wean him to 26% oxygen, he is stable and doesnt cough the whole time.

1700 put him back, into his cribette. Cares, grandma takes his temp. And helps with containment.   Hardly any pee. he stays happy all care,  super relaxed till we adjust the strap that’s helping hold his mouth shut. He is upset so I pick him a few inches hovering above his bed and give him a little bobbing motion.  He calms down immediately. Good boy! A new thing I’ve discovered to help him relax. Swaddle him up and then grandma gives him binky time.

28% oxygen.

We let him rest,  a few minutes later he coughs. A minute later he has a brady desat event. Bumped up to 45% oxygen

After we get him to recover. Weaned to 36%.

Dinner time with grandma.

Back to NICU.  He is on 36% oxygen.  Tonight he has a primary!

We hang out and talk to the nurse about how he is doing.  She gave him a sponge bath last night.  He was pretty good for her but kept her busy.

Around 1930 he coughs with a brady desat shortly after, turned up to 45% oxygen,  swapped to neopuff.  Respiratory therapist gets paged because he takes a while to recover this time. Up and down his stats go.  She comes and help.  Bumps up neopuff pressure a little.  He comes up.

2000 cares a little early since he is already unswaddled and angry, not a good way to start the cares, or the night.  Temp is fine, Just pee. Respiratory therapist tonight is one of his favorites.

He doesn’t get as angry as last night, where he hated everything. All day he dealt with cpt excellently.  This time he is already upset,  but he calms down slightly while it is on him.

He doesn’t get turned up as high as last night even though he desat bigger. This respiratory therapist knows what he likes better though.

He likes slower movements and position changes,  not getting excessive pressure on his face to hold the neopuff on,  just enough to create a seal.  His chin tilted up slightly to help open his airway.   He doesn’t like the cpt vibrator pushed so hard that it leaves a dent. The vibration is what does the work,  not how hard you push it into his chest.

After cares, he is turned back to 30%, high sating. Weaned to 26% slowly!  That’s twice today we got to 26%! Once yesterday!   His lungs may be heading in the right direction!

I think if we have the respiratory therapist from yesterday again. I will try and nicely remind her of the things he likes. She seems to be the one that he has the worst time with.

While today we started cares in a worse spot and came out better.

Yesterday we stared cares in a better spot and came out worse.

Seems backward.

She is probably a good respiratory therapist with lots of nicu knowledge.  But we are the expeRT’s on RT, and can help her learn how to better care for him.  Since we all have the same end goal.  A healthier baby, if I can say it non offensively it should be helpful.

While every day is different and is nearly impossible to compare.  I feel it is a trend that can potentially be helped.

In all today was a good day. Grandma had fun, we had an awesome skin to skin!

He was happier overall.  Now we need brady desats to stop.

Keep on being strong! Love you RT!