Another big day for Eli!

So today ended up being a huge day for Eli. As I mentioned in my earlier post, they took out his drainage tube and changed his ventilator to a CPAP machine so it wasn't breathing for him this morning. He was doing really well on that so when I had gotten back from eating my lunch they had decided to extibate him. So all we had to do was wait for the doctor to come observe that. However, she was in another procedure so it took her all afternoon to get there.

By the time she came in Eli had been off his meds for quite awhile and was getting pretty alert and uncomfortable. One of the reasons being his central line is sutured into his neck so it doesn't come out, but one of the stitches was pulling at his neck and causing discomfort. It was bothering me so I asked about it and they decided to redo the stitch. After some debate about whether or not we should start pain meds to do it we decided against it, and I am glad we did because I think it was easier to do one stitch than it is to put in an IV, he barely moved. But they were very sensitive to what I wanted and it kind of ended up being my decision to just do it (am I a bad mom!?!?!?)

Then after that the respiratory therapist came in and we got to remove his breathing tube!!! YAY!!! He took a minute to breath by himself easily but finally got the hang of it. He did OK for awhile, but then his oxygen levels started droping so they did have to put him back on a nasal cannual, like he had before. His nurse said that was pretty common though. They also needed to give him some medicine that's like an Albuterol inhaler, to help with the swelling of his lungs and pleura. He was doing well after that, but it made him really awake.

Then after that procedure we took out his catheter and rectal thermometer. So he's back to peeing like a normal baby and getting his temp taking under his arm like a normal baby. So lots of invasive things came out of him today!!

He was doing well, but was wide awake when I left due to the inhaler meds. But his night nurse assured me that he would be fine and he would take good care of him, he seemed like he was going to be pretty attentive to Eli tonight so I felt OK about going home. Plus I wanted to see my bigger buddy at home. Who, by the way seemed in pretty good spirits after hanging out with daddy today and being in a somewhat more regular routine.