On the 8th Day, We Rested

Last night, before she left, we asked the attending physician if we could take a break from changing the medications. She agreed that it was a good idea, so for the most part, today was a day of rest.

Mason started off with a higher oxygen need again for some reason, but after a couple of really big diapers, his need started to come down again. We are impressed, though with the amount of fluid he was able to pee off today - a true testament to how much 1 Pampers diaper can hold without leaking for sure. One diaper accumulated about 7 ounces of fluid over a 4 hour period. Quite impressive, I think. I digress, back to the oxygen need...Overnight he was needing 3.5L, then up to 6 when he woke up and now back down to 4. I'm pretty sure we'll be able to turn him down even more shortly.

Mason had 2 lab draws, the first of which didn't wake either of us when it was done via IV at 6am - I was really impressed!! Once again, the chloride level came back low, but not as bad as other days, so we held off on the extra chloride supplement. Unfortunately, when the 2nd lab draw was done (again via IV!!), the chloride level was lower, so likely tomorrow we'll have to restart the arginine chloride to help bring that back up. Generally, though everything else looked better including a decrease in the amount of carbon dioxide Mason is holding in.

Bill and I even had a chance to "rest" and go home for a few hours so that I could re-pack for the next week (we're not sure how much longer we're going to be here) and we could both take a little break. Thankfully, my mom was willing to spend a little extra time with her grandson -- surprising, I know ;-)

Tomorrow we'll be talking about the food issue. Very likely we'll try feeding him into his intestine for a while just to make sure he continues to get better. We'll see how it all works out. Please wish us luck!