Holding our breath...

We are about to start a Spontaneous Breathing Trial

to see if Bronson is ready to extibate fom the ventilator...

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He is still intibated with a breathing tube,

but they are turning it off.

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{Ahhhh! Scary!}

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They will let him take over breathing on his own for an hour to see how strong his lungs are.

If he does well, they will take him off permanently in the morning.

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We are holding our breath hoping he doesn't hold his!

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Prayers needed!

Pin down...

We've had a pretty slow day here and a very sleepy little guy

aaaaaalllllll day long... not much action, really.

And then they took him off the Versed...

WOW!

We've got one strong little dude here!

It took Matt and I,

the Respiratory Therapist,

and TWO nurses to hold him down...

Another nurse to turn off all the alarms...

And still another to give him a bolus of sedative!

Let's just say he did NOT want to be suctioned.

It was a total wrestling match!

He put up a DARN good fight!

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And am I sorry about that?

Not on your life!

YAY!

Our Little Onion...

One of our fabulous Nurse Practitioners, Erik,

told us yesterday that recovery from a Post-Arrest Neuro Trauma

is like peeling an onion.

..
When a child is so sick that they are on life support sustaining devices,

you just slowly wean them off of one thing at a time...

Wait...

See how they do...

Then when they are stable, you go onto the next layer and work from there.

We liked analogy that a lot.

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It's fragile. It stinks. Sometimes it's surprisingly sweet.

But you really can't forsee what's inside until you get there.

And it's a slow, painful process...

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We also decided it's fitting because there are so many tears.

Tears of sorrow.

Tears of worry.

Tears of anguish and regret.

Tears of hope.

Tears of faith.

Tears of comfort.

Tears of gratitude.

Tears of joy.

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So Bronson has become our Little Onion.

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We still have so many layers left to go...

{Sigh}

But we can only think of one at a time.

This one.

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Today, we peeled another layer off our onion.

We finished the Hypothermia Therapy last night

and he has been able to retain a normal body temperature.

They removed the the device we disaffectionately call his "ice blanket"

and he is ever so grateful! He really did NOT like that thing.

But come on, would you?

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Because he is less agitated, they were able to lower the dose of his sedative.

He still sleeps unconsciously almost all the time, but reacts a bit more to any stimulation.

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His chest Xray this morning shows that his pneumonia is improving.

His right lung shows a small globule of collapse after all,

but does seem to be less dense and improving.

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They continue with the lasix (furosemide) to relieve some of his adema,

as he is retaining water. He looks a little less puffy today, overall.

As he warms up, and the circulation to his extremities improves,

his poor little hands and feet are beginning to swell.

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Thanks to those of you have sent him stuffed animals

(Jen, Jared & Lisette, Chris & Lisa, Mindy)...

We are using them to prop us his arms and reduce the swelling!

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The petichiae on his arm looks a TON better, almost gone in fact.

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He is running a little low-grade fever.

His sweet Daddy is diligent in adjusting the cool comfort cloths

we are using across his forehead and chest to draw out the heat.

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They've been watching his hermatocrit drop for the last day and a half

and determined this morning that he did indeed need a Blood Transfusion.

Darn. But I guess it is the least of our worries.

It is running now.

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We cleaned him up a bit.

I was able to give him a little sponge bath this morning.

I washed off the rest of the blood from the resusitation line attempts.

I wiped the drool and sticky stuff out from the rolls under his chin.

I scraped the crusty boogers out from around his vent hose and nose tubes.

Now that they have taken the EEG scalp electrodes off,

we were able to wash his hair and give him a cute little do!

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His faux hawk is a huge hit with all the nurses and staff.

He's stylin' again now!