Look At This!!

This is the vent that he's been on in the PICU.  The superpower, got a brain, think for itself ventilator.  (Yeah, there might be a bit of vent envy here.)  But look at what it says!  STANDBY, baby!! 

Yep, he's (hopefully??) making the jump back to his vent.  This morning we turned down the settings on this beast to his home settings.  He wasn't quite sure which way to go with that.  And after a little while, one of the docs asked if it was going great.  I told him we still weren't sure.  I figured that one of two things would happen in the next few hours.  Either he would get it together and pull it off, or he would get tired, say, sorry guys, and need to go back up.

And it did take about another five hours before it looked good for long enough that we were all comfortable with things. 

So here we go again.  He's doing what he did this morning when we made changes.  His heart rate is a bit higher, he's really tired.  He's needing a TON of oxygen.  And now we wait to see what he does.  But I kinda think he's going to do it.  If he can stabilize, we'll go to the floor tomorrow. 

Right now, he's resting, sleeping peacfully, which is the best thing for him when he's trying to work hard to adjust.  Besides, he stayed up all night last night, playing hard.  Let me tell you, this super-vent, the ICU vent, doesn't have a clue what to do with a kid who blows raspberries.  It's used to holding still, sedated, intubated patients.  We just laughed.

He still has a ways to go before he can go home.  He's on almost nine liters of oxygen and he has to get to three for at least 24 hours.  But he'll get it.  So sleep tight, baby boy.  Love you.

A good laugh and a long sleep are the best cures in the doctor's book. 

~Irish Proverb