Yummy, yummy, yummy, he's got food in his tummy

Hello all,

Peter's mama with the latest update. The much-vaunted first trach change didn't happen today because the made-to-measure trach tube hadn't arrived yet. It will probably be ready by tomorrow.

However, there were some changes to the daily routine. The doctors decided that two of the treatments they were trying (increased ventilator pressure to inflate Peter's lungs and IV nutrition only) were not making any difference to the chyle flow. The thought behind the ventilator pressure was that widely inflated lungs would leave less room in the chest cavity for chyle to leak into. IV feeding, or TPN, was supposed to prevent digestive secretions in the intestines from stimulating the lymphatic system.

Since these things weren't working, the doctors decided to turn Peter's peak ventilator pressure or PEEP down this morning from 14 to 12. Also, Peter's nose tube was connected to a supply of special non-fat formula! (We tell Daniel that Peter is drinking milk through a straw in his nose.) Although the nurses had assured us that a patient could live and thrive for months on IV fluids only, it made us happy to know Peter was once again getting food in his tummy. Now that Peter has been put back on food, I gave the doctor some information I had received about non-fat breast milk for chylothorax babies. It can be obtained by prescription from the Denver breast milk bank, where they make it from donor milk.

Peter has been very active, wakeful and smiley the past few days. He loves to wiggle his arms and kick his legs as he watches his mobile or looks at our faces. Daniel has also recovered his health and spirits after having a short-lived cold last weekend. The chyle leak remains #1 on our prayer list.