Exciting Times

Bryce's recovery from surgery continues to progress slowly but steadily. My hopefulness increases as each day passes and I see him acting a little more like himself. He's still pretty out of it from the pain medication, morphine tends to have that effect on people. And he's still pretty twitchy/quivery which of course worries me but doctor after doctor after nurse practioner has assured me that they aren't concerned by it. I still am anyway, but c'est la vie.

I was able to hold him for a couple of hours last night and he rested comfortably and peacefully the entire time. If I could just hold him all of the time I think we'd both be all the better for it.

He was pretty restless after we put him back and continued to flail this morning but we finally got him on his belly this afternoon and he is totally conked out now. I think he just exhausted himself.

Neurology came by late yesterday afternoon and again this morning. They are very happy with the shunt's placement and are sure it is working well. Additionally, they are very pleased with his incision sites and overall recovery. It's always nice to hear such positiveness from that bunch.

This morning during rounds everyone else also seemed very pleased with Bryce's recovery so far. He's back up to full feeds now and talk of extubation has resumed. Dr. Hodges even asked me what I thought of extubating Bryce ...today! I was rather shocked and said honestly that I felt he wasn't ready. I think my point about his riding the vent while on the morphine was well taken and we all came to a mutual agreement that one more day of recovery certainly can't hurt.

That means tomorrow could very well be extubation attempt number three. I so hope he can do it this time around! If we can get him extubated and on CPAP then they'll start getting him to try "nippling" his feeds - taking some from a bottle. If he can get the whole suck, swallow, breath repetition down consistently than there is a good chance I may eventually be able to breast feed him. It's a long shot but I know it would be so rewarding for us both.

Well, I'll be sure to keep everyone up to date as CPAP is tried again in the next few days. Thanks for all of your encouragement over these last few hard days. We'd had so many good ones I think we forgot how bad they can be. Here's to many more good ones!