Baby Snores

Sorry to keep everyone waiting but I was just too tired to post last night. And that despite very good intentions we had yesterday. For one, we thought we were smart by arriving at the hospital early (well, before 11am...) hoping to spend some more quality time with Peter. But Murphy's Law kicked in. The doctor had changed the bandage on his chest earlier in the morning and they had to sedate him quite a bit for it. So, when we arrived, Peter was completely out of it. After watching an enormously stoned baby for about half an hour, we retreated to have lunch.

The nurses told us that they are still working on the fluids. He is peeing quite a bit but they want to increase that even more. On Saturday, the ECMO was turned down to 40% and the pressure on the ventilator was increased a little, in the hope that this would help the lungs expel some of the excess fluid. His dose of diuretics was also increased. Interestingly, Peter is snoring and this is a good sign. It means that there appears to be room between the ventilator tube and his windpipe, suggesting a loss of fluids (despite what the machines are measuring otherwise). He is also blowing lots of bubbles: more fluids leaving his body.

On Sunday, after going to church in the morning, we went to the hospital. The ECMO flow was now down to 30%. One of the nurses told us that the doctors have a tentative plan to reduce the ECMO to 20% on Monday, then to 10% overnight (Mon to Tue) and then have an evaluation on Tuesday morning. If Peter does well on blood pressure etc. then they will go ahead and take him off the ECMO. This does not mean that they are not still aggressively trying to deal with the fluid situation, but they are now reasoning that he is doing quite well despite this. In the end, they may prefer trying to control the fluids with the ventilator alone. The ECMO is in a sense a mixed blessing: it does provide his body with the needed rest, but it also has a number of risks, one of which is that it tends to make it harder for patients to get rid of fluids.

During our visit, Peter was very drowsy. When we first arrived, he was fast asleep. The nurses had told us that they had changed his morphine from periodically to a constant drip, which makes him less active. So, we decided to have lunch first. After lunch, we returned to find Peter wide awake and again taking a great interest in the mobile. He also looked at our faces very intently and seemed to be generally very happy to be awake. After about 20 minutes, we inquired how long he should be awake and one of the nurses (Andy) said he was getting ready to sedate him again because he thought Peter was wearing himself out. Betsy suggested that if we just stood back, he might drift off to sleep on his own, without chemical inducement. This proved to be the case: within five minutes, he was fast asleep again.

All in all, despite the little real time we have been able to spend with Peter, we are quite happy. The little time was quality time and there does seem to be a hopeful prospect for him soon.