There hasn't been much change in the management of Lucas' care the last few days. The doctor's have finally settled on a less is more approach. They are going to continue holding his feeds for the weekend and just give IV nutrition to see how much correlation there is with his chest tube output. It seems like the pleural fluid seems to be slowing a bit so it will be interesting to see what the doctors' plans are on Monday. At the start of the week they are also going to reevaluate his breathing and ability to trial off the vent again
(Shout out to Marti - our favorite RT - hope you're having a good vacation, but get back here already!). They put in a larger ET tube yesterday to better optimize the assistance he gets from the vent. The quick procedure went well and he barely seemed to notice. Now his vent settings are more accurate because there isn't a large leak to consider. His biggest breathing obstacle right now is edema. He has gained 100 grams each day for the last three days and his vent settings have gone up as well. With extra swelling on board, it makes it more difficult for him to breathe. Doctor's are working on different ways to help him mobilize this fluid and he'll get a couple doses of diuretics today.
His NICU room is starting to look empty compared to our first week here. Slowly pieces of equipment are starting to disappear (a good sign). He's weaning off a few medications and only has one IV and his PICC line. His umbilical nub is still hanging on and it's taking all my will power not to pick at it! Hopefully it will fall off soon and it will be one more thing to leave his isolette.
Lucas has been awake and alert a little more and showing more signs of being a regular baby. Of course he can't make sounds with a tube in his throat but now he is able to cry, yawn and cough. He's also stretching and moving around a little more. It's nice to see these changes and we hope to see more of them as time goes on.
I'm continuing to pump but am slowly weaning because it's looking like he most likely won't be able to take breast milk because of his chylothorax issues. Should he ever be able to drink it, there will be a small supply of the good stuff waiting for him. Both girls are kind of fascinated with the breast pump machine and yesterday my mom found Hadley imitating me. Maggie's been catching on to all Haddie's bad habits so it probably won't be long before we catch her doing this too. Pretty funny.
