7:15pm: I ended up staying the entire day with Reid and I am glad that I did as the NICU decided to throw Reid a little 6 month birthday party. We sang to him and ate cake. And yes, Reid had a little bit of cake himself... well, icing anyway. He didn't really know what to do with it until I put his pacifier in his mouth and then he went to town. It was a good celebration and I got to take pictures of it... blue stained lip and all:






1:15pm: the last blood gas test showed a CO2 of 42. Because of this, his arterial line in his leg will be coming out. Gas tests aren't needed as often now and the risk of having an art line in a major artery in his leg is not worth the risk.

I have enjoyed my visit with Reid today. I have been at his bedside when he isn't asleep and trying to get some work done on my laptop when he is. It is amazing though, if you cover up his stomach, you would never know he had surgery yesterday. He is keeping himself busy moving around and sucking on his pacifier.

11:00am: I just got Reid back to sleep after his IV was placed in the top of his right foot. I was in the room when they gave the IV and after a few sticks, they finally had some luck.

Just got done talking to the doctor. He is very excited with the progress he has made but knows he has to walk a fine line to keep Reid awake enough so that his breathing keeps normal, but sedated just enough so that he isn't in pain. He is afraid that if he goes too much to one side, his CO2 levels will go up.

Feeds will probably resume tomorrow, however, he did want to talk to the surgeons to get their buy-in. He has had quite a bit of work done to him yesterday and want to make sure they feel he can handle the feeds. Nonetheless, he will start the feeds very cautiously and work his way up.

Flow will probably stay at 8 liter for a little while, but is all going to be based upon how Reid reacts. Again, the doctor doesn't want to rock the boat before he has had a chance to recover from the surgery. He is currently on 50% O2 but his saturations are hovering 99-100.. I expect to see this weaned as their goal is to stay above 95 sats.


10:15am: Just got to the hospital about 15 minutes ago and Reid looks really good! It is nice to not see the NJ tube in his nose or the ET or OG tube in his mouth and only the nasal cannulas. They extubated him and put him on 10 liter flow and have already been able to wean him to 8 liter based upon his good CO2. His arterial gas showed 39 (which compares to about a 49 previously as this gas is taken from an artery). They probably won't wean any further today and will probably resume the previous weaning schedule as before. Now that he is off the vent, they don't want to push him too hard where he tires out.

Right now, they are working on getting an IV. His hematocrit levels were a little low and want to transfuse to give him a boost. The transfusion they gave him yesterday was very small (20 cc).

I cant get over how good he looks though. He is moving all around, kicking his feet, moving his arms and playing around with his new g-tube. The nurse thinks that because of all of this moving it is helping with his swelling. He looks a little puffy but not bad. His hernia site is looking good as well - not very swollen at all.

8:15am: Reid was extubated at 8am! Everything looks good so far and they are waiting on a gas test.

7:45am: Reid had a pretty fussy night last night as he started to wake up and realized that he was now trying to breathe down a straw. They pushed him hard last night and they have gotten him down to 14 breaths per minute on the vent and allowing him to breathe on his own. Subsequently, they are planning to extubate at 8:00am!!

Kristen is back to work today and I am about to get ready to drive into the hospital. Hopefully some pictures of him off the vent sometime later this morning. We are just crossing our fingers that the extubation goes well and he is capable of handling the high flow once again.