Sunday, A Day of Rest

For the most part, that's what Mason got to do today. In fact, the nurse's goal for him today was "rest/recover" -- I think we're finally all getting on the same page!


At about 2 am or so, after yet another major desaturation, the doctors finally agreed to put Mason back on the paralytics and he's been on them ever since. They've been able to turn them down a bit with the addition of another sedative, but realized that paralysis was important for him. It's nice to see him comfortable most of the day. He has done well with the ventilator settings and was able to be weaned down a little bit. At best today, he was needing only 60% oxygen/40% air. I imagine some may be wondering why the % of oxygen is so important, after all, we all breathe oxygen every day. In reality, we only breathe in about 21% oxygen in the air. There's actually a lot of other gas that we breathe in. The more concentrated the oxygen, the harder it is on the lungs (gets a little too technical here), but basically, high concentrations of oxygen can harm Mason's lungs even further - something we REALLY want to avoid. He did great on the lower setting for most of the day, but after several hours, needed to come up a little bit. He continues to rest very comfortably on 70% oxygen/30% air and saturating at 94-95% - perfect saturation for him.

In the next couple of days, we will be investigating a little more of the Why? question. One of the bacterial cultures that has been sent out finally came back indicating that Mason likely has some bacteria growing in his lungs. This may be as a result of the aspiration pneumonias that he had some time ago or it might be just a new thing. We really don't know, but we do know that it should respond to the 2 antibiotics he was started on Monday and Friday. We are hopeful that the bacteria does respond and hopeful that there will be some improvement once it's gone. We are also planning to have Mason's heart looked at in the cardiac catheterization lab early this coming week. They will insert a catheter into his femoral vein and/or artery (in his groin area) and thread it up into the heart. This catheter will be able to measure the pressure in his lungs and his pulmonary arteries to see if he does in fact have heart issues. They will also be able to look at the hole in his heart to see if it is contributing in anyway. The information they get from this study will help to guide our treatment plan moving forward. The procedure does not come without risk, but we have the utmost faith in the skill of the cardiologist doing it.

There are still so many variables and Mason is still so very sick. Please continue to pray that he responds to the treatments that are done and is safe through his procedures.

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