I’m back with our little buddy, and I brought some treasures with me.

If you follow us on facebook, you have already seen the photo, of N giving the sock monkey some love and cuddles.

And here is the monkey delivering some of the love from home to L.  Monkey has since been put to work in holding some tubes off of L’s chest.  Well done N AND Monkey!

Some other additions to our space (also cuddled by N):

Now for the update:  I actually have one!  When I left I had signed permission for a blood transfusion “just in case”.  L’s platelets were dropping and had hit 18 (this happened in the fall as well and he did get a transfusion) and they were getting low enough he almost needed help this time too.  But..they are rising on their own!  Last report was 28.  The normal range starts around 150. (As in 150,000 per microliter).  This feels like a huge win.  I’m not opposed to a transfusion, it just feels great that he rebounded on his own in some way.

The verdict is that his lungs sound a bit better, and the “junk” is much less tan and brown, and more cloudy.  Both of these are signs of improvement.  The chest xray isn’t reflecting it yet…but that’s normal as they lag behind.  We anticipate that tomorrow’s xray might show slight improvement.

His ventilator stats are fairly good.  He’s down to 35% oxygen, with a peep of 8, and a minimum breath support of 20.  They are trying to drop the 20 down to 15, to see if he will pick up more breaths on his own.  If all goes well, they’ll start working on adjusting his peep down too.

To add some perspective, this is my understanding of how these stats compare to NOT needing support:

• 35% oxygen currently, compared to 21% room air.
• peep of “8”, compared to you and I walking around with an unassisted “5”.
• minimum breath support of 20 and he’s not currently breathing over the machine, with a goal of getting him down to no support, and self initiating 20+ breaths per minute on his own

So…progress.  No improvement in his xray, he’s still on vent, but behind the scenes things are getting better.  Well done L!

They’ve also helped him pee off more fluids, so he is looking much less puffy.  His beautiful eye lashes have reemerged around those blue eyes.  I could look at this boy all day. So I will.  Good night all!  And thank you as always for the prayers, support, and for loving these boys like your own.

Scoop Scoop!