Wow, three weeks...it has sort of flown by, but in some ways still has been like an eternity for us. His September due date (hopefully around the time he will come home)...seems like a year away at this point. I was joking with the attending physician today that Evan will be walking by the time he decides to come off the respirator!
I had a good talk with the new attending physician (Dr. Cahan)...she told me the steroid treatment hasn't been normalizing his CO2 levels as she had hoped. He's had really good results on his blood gas lab results, then they'll adjust (turn down) his respirator settings, but then his next lab results will show that they need to turn the respirator settings back up. She is planning on finishing this course of steroids on Sunday, and maybe starting another course of small doses if he still doesn't show the results they are looking for. She is thinking of maybe testing him and putting him on the regular respirator in a few days. She doesn't want to be too hasty in doing that since she doesn't want to risk his lungs deflating. They are attributing his slow weaning to that darn pulmonary hemorrhage he had during that first week he was admitted.
The doctor said no change to the IVH conditions I posted about earlier. That's good news...no change is good. His chest x-ray was also looking fine. His primary nurse Marianne was working today and she has figured out why he seems to be so fussy at times. Normally, the nurses will only suction his lungs about every 4-6 hours. Marianne found that when he starts getting fussy, he needs suctioned...about every hour. He calms right back down after she does it. They are feeding him 1 ml every three hours now, so he is tolerating the breast milk.
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UMC Charges: $6,591.05
Running Total: $207,160.84
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