I Forgot the Camera...

How can I forget the camera on the day that Ethan gets moved to VapoTherm? Apparently my mind has been turned to mush. As if pregnancy hormones weren't enough, this past week's roller coaster has done me in.

We've had a string of bad, better, bad, better gasses and several conversations amongst ourselves if we were destined for another trip to UIHC, or somewhere else. Through it all, xrays continued to show that Ethan's lungs were over expanded, so his cpap settings were steadily reduced. So the puzzle is how to keep his co2 under control without giving him too much pressure.

Yesterday Dr. Nau talked with the head pediatric pulmonologist (that's lungs, by the way) at UIHC. He apparently didn't think they were missing anything here. He recommended getting the co2 under control with more steroids. The going theory is still that this slide back was a rebound after stopping steroids. So, I guess we have a little roid boy. So, they continued inhaled steroids twice a day until his co2 was reasonable last night and this morning. Then the plan is to put him on a slightly higher dose once every other day. I'm really not sure what the long term plan with this is, but for now it seems to be working.

So today Ethan graduated to Vapotherm, or high flow nasal cannula. It looks pretty much just like regular oxygen prongs in his nose, except that the tube is connected to a bigger tube filled with warm water. It's moist and warm oxygen (and helium! He's still getting heliox again) going into his nose. Much better than the dry, icky cpap blowing in his nose and causing major secretions, and therefore lots of nasty nose suctioning. :(

He looks really good today. It's so nice to see his face! He's breathing pretty easily and his eyes are big and bright. It's almost as if he's saying thank you! He is so much easier to maneuver without worrying about all of the tubing etc. It's wonderful to just walk over and pick him up when he is crying, or just if you want to. You never think about how wonderful that is until you can't do it.

I still won't really breathe until a couple of days from now. He has been on vapotherm several times before, only to take several steps backward in a day or two... We've said several prayers and I told Dr Nau that he had to dance some sort of ritualistic dance or something to ward off the evil spirits. :)

Allison has her 4 month checkup tomorrow. I'm really not looking forward to it. More shots. Probably a heel stick to check for Anemia. Bummer. Have I mentioned that Alli is really fun now? She smiles when she sees you. She loves looking at toys hanging or the lights on her bouncy seat. And oh my gosh, she LOVES her mobile! Thank you Nori and Ken!! Holy cow she will look at that thing longer than anything else. She will smile and laugh at it for 30 min or more. It's amazing and fun to watch. (Also really handy if I need to do anything, like pump... I'm SO tired of cleaning pump parts and labeling milk bottles!)

So, it's been overall a good day. Let's hope tomorrow is too.