Today we finally heard a bit of encouraging news. After several days of high-level support on the breathing machine, they were finally able to turn Aiden's support levels down today. This morning when we got to the hospital, they had turned the pressure down and his oxygen level was at 40%. For the past several days they haven't been able to get him down any lower than 95%, so this is very good news.
On Tuesday, we found out Aiden has pneumonia, and yesterday, the neonatologist told us that it has damaged his lungs pretty severely. They have also been checking for a possible fungal infection. They haven't been able to grow any fungus on the cultureyet , but they have been giving him antifungal medication just in case, and it seems to be helping. The neonatologist that was on today told us that he seems to have turned a corner just after they started giving him the antifungal meds. They had seen a mass in Aiden's heart that they thought was a fungus, but they called the cardiologist in to do a secondary echocardiogram and it wasn't there anymore.
Aiden's tummy is looking better too. They have been suctioning out the gas in his bowel through an Anderson tube. That has prevented his bowel from blowing up with air like it was doing before. Yesterday, they turned the suction off and just let it drain with gravity. That worked well enough that they removed the Anderson tube this morning and just put in a regular feeding tube, which is smaller than the Anderson. While he is not being fed, the gas in his belly can drain out through the tube. They are going to watch him for a little while to see how he tolerates the smaller tube. If he does well and the gas doesn't build up again, they will begin feedings again.
So, today was the first good news day for quite a while. The doctors and nurses all seem to think Aiden has turned a corner. I think it may be a little early to say that yet, but I can't tell you how much we hope that is the case.
No comments:
Post a Comment