Off the vent

Ben emailed:


The doctors kept saying that yesterday was going to be a good day. We were really hoping that would be the case since the day before was a bit of a roller coaster ride. That kind of sums up life with Fin, actually. As soon as we arrived at the hospital, the doctors were all gathered in his room and they were going over a bunch of things. Turns out he did, in fact, make some progress yesterday. The highlights:

They determined that he most likely does not have a bowel obstruction. Good news, but he's not quite ready to take food yet, either. This is going to be a slow process.

They figured out the cause of his fever. He has a yeast infection in his tummy. This is probably the source of his fever and high white count. They have a specific antibiotic to treat it, but it can harm the kidneys, another one of his problem areas, so they are being cautious.

They decided that he no longer needs the ventilator. They took out the breathing tube and we got to hold him, like, really hold him, for the first time in a week and a half. I'd like to say that went well, but he was clearly upset the whole time. We weren't sure if this was because of his surgery or something else. They put him back in his bed and he fell asleep fitfully. He was working hard to breathe, so they thought he needed some more help. They tried C-PAP, to give him the extra pressure, but he didn't tolerate that well, either. A lot of this is due to exhaustion and weakness post-surgery. He's been through a lot, so pushing him a little at a time is the name of the game. Because his lungs are really getting better, he just needs the force of the oxygen flow to keep his floppy airway open. So they put him on the nasal Neptune oxygen machine and cranked the liters, and he liked that. He slept off and on all night, and his body seemed to tolerate this method best. So, baby steps...