A lot has happened since my last post, so let me see if I can capture it all:

Yesterday, during our afternoon visit, Reid had a little bit of trouble recovering from his "touch time" where they suctioned his throat, did an Echo, an xray, and moved him. His oxygen saturation had dropped down into the upper sixties and lower seventies while on 100% oxygen. The respiratory therapist then used the hand bag ventilator to manually give him some breaths of oxygen. His saturation shot straight up - so his lungs responded well to conventional ventilation (where the lungs are actually moving in and out). The doctor's theory was that due to the amount of mucus in his lungs (as seen by the collapsed right lung in his xray), the pressure of conventional vent was helping open his airways (something that the oscillator may not be best for). Knowing that the manual efforts worked, they used this information and decided to switch Reid off of the oscillator and back onto the ventilator that he had been on previously. He was doing much better on this and it was touch and go for a few hours as to see if this change was going to work. His required oxygen levels remained in the 90s all of yesterday, so it was a little nerve-wracking to have gone from 70% on the oscillator to 100% and then still hovering in the 90s.

With a little hesitation, Kristen and I headed up to visit my parents in South Carolina (about a 2.5 hr drive away). We were desperate to get out of town since we hadn't really left our 15 mile comfort radius from home in well over 3 months. We needed to have a break from all of the action, but were a little weary after all of the change. Nonetheless, we decided to head out of town. Pat, our nurse yesterday, gave us a little comfort though with the use of her iPhone - text messaging and some picture mail goes a long way. :) I love technology, so knowing that our nurse would use her personal phone to help us out meant the world to us!!

Not much change when we called in last night, but on the the call I made this morning to the NICU, we got a little more comfort:

- oxygen levels are coming back down and were at 83%

- his paralytic medicine hadn't been administered since yesterday afternoon. It will be nice to see Reid moving around again and hopeful that we will be able to see him open his eyes again! It is amazing what a little eye contact with their son can do for a parent. :) He is currently only taking his morphine and his Versed (to calm him down).

- there are doctors orders to start weaning the nitric oxide as soon as his oxygen levels start getting below 80% (another hopeful step in the right direction).

- he had a good diaper - his plumbing is still working. There are no orders yet for the feedings, but we are hopeful that with the change back to the conventional vent and the fact that he is off his paralytic, that the feedings are around the corner.

Kristen and I are going to enjoy a nice breakfast with my parents and make our way back into Atlanta. The news this morning was good news and puts us a little more at ease. Thanks again for the prayers --- they are working!