Just a quick update:
1. Mr. Bug’s ventilator is now initiating only 4 breaths for him, down from 16 yesterday! His blood gasses (how much oxygen and how much carbon dioxide are in his blood) are GREAT compared to even yesterday! Right now, he is initiating about 16-20 breaths per minute. This is a start. The ventilator is doing ALL of the other work in breathing for him. This means that while he initiates a breath, the machine does everything after that initiation. I am not 100% sure what all goes into taking a breath (several really smart respiratory therapists have attempted to explain it to me, but I have lost about half of my brain cells over the past 6 weeks, and I end up staring blankly at them and understanding almost nothing. I am determined to understand it one of these days). I do know that tomorrow they begin to lessen the amount of pressure they support his lungs with. I think what this means is that right now, the machine is blowing air into his lungs such that they do all the work inflating them. They will lessen the amount of pressure the machine inflates his lungs with, hoping that over the next week or so his diaphragm and all the other muscles necessary for breathing will become strong once again so they can do the work of breathing for him. The hope is that within 2 weeks, if all goes perfectly, he will be completely weaned from the ventilator. This does NOT mean that he will necessarily breathe room air without any help. It just means they will pull the tube out of his lungs. The amount of support he will need after that is unknown, as the extent of damage to his lungs is unknown. We are praying for really big things, though, and are asking God to completely heal his little lungs so that they are as good as new.
2. Tonight at midnight they are switching him over to a different kind of dialysis that runs only every 10 hours rather than 24/7. The thought is that a little boy cannot run around a play when he is hooked up to a machine, and the intermittent dialysis will give him the kind of life a little boy would want – one where he can RUN!!! His body has become strong enough to at least try this, but if he is not ready, they will switch him back to the 24/7 method he is currently on and try again at a later date. It is possible that with the switch, his body may trigger his kidneys to work again. Here, too, we are praying for complete healing of his kidneys such that he will not need dialysis beyond this hospital stay.
They are trying their hardest to get him OUT of the PICU!!! 🙂
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