Friday, January 30

Yesterday was a pretty quiet day for Caden and for that we are grateful. We are hoping the doctors are finally paying attention and realizing that he does not like big changes and his body doesn't tolerate them well. It seems like they would make a big change and then an hour later, they would have to backtrack in order to respond to Caden. They would take two steps forward followed by one step backward. But yesterday they seemed to just take one small step forward at a time and Caden seemed to respond fairly well. They adjusted his ventilator settings several times and as long as they did it in small increments, he tolerated it well and his blood-gas levels were good.

Before doctor rounds in the morning, one of the cardiac surgeons came by and had us sign a consent to close Caden's chest. He said they would do this Saturday or Sunday, but it was a day-by-day decision and most likely it would be Sunday. However, he said they would leave the chest open as long as 10 days if necessary. Before Greg left the hospital last night, another cardiac surgeon said they would not close his chest today but probably on Sunday or Monday. They are waiting for the swelling to go down a little more in the chest before doing it. The first doctor we spoke to said that due to the emergency procedures on Wednesday, they would be unable to close him with a continuous stitch which would leave a smaller scar. He said they would be required to use individual stitches and Caden will have a larger scar because of it. But, we figure it is all part of what will make him unique. We just want him to be okay. A scar is the least of our concern.

During rounds, the doctors also said that Caden's lung function was improved on Friday from Thursday and that was good. They started to reduce the amount of oxygen they were delivering through the ventilator. They also ordered another echo in order to see how the heart function was compared to the day before. Because of the cardiac arrest, they put him on epinephrine in order to help his heart pump stronger. Based on the results of the echo, which showed improved heart function from Thursday, they started to wean him off the epinephrin as well. As it remains right now, Caden is completely sedated, on heavy pain medication and on a paralytic medication in order to prevent him from doing any breathing on his own. As they phrase it, they don't want “any audience participation.” They want to do all the breathing for him so they can control the pressures in his lungs. And, they don't want him struggling or moving at all which is why they have him completely sedated, drugged and paralyzed. As a parent, it's pretty hard to see your baby in that state, but it's better than knowing he is in a lot of pain.

The other thing they did Friday was to do an ultrasound of Caden's brain to check and see if there was any bleeding as a result of his pulmonary hypertensive crisis and subsequent cardiac arrest. By the time we left the hospital last night, they had not received an official report from the radiologist, but they thought everything looked normal. That was a relief for us.

It seems that as long as they keep making small changes, Caden tolerates them much better. And, instead of taking two steps forward and one step back, we just take one baby step forward at a time. The end result is likely the same in terms of elapsed time, but is probably less stress and trauma on his poor little body. So, all-in-all it was a good, quiet day. If every day continues like today, we will be happy. Even if the progress is small, that's okay with us. We just don't want huge setbacks like Wednesday. Thank you for your prayers as we continue on this roller coaster ride. It's been a long ride and it doesn't appear to be over any time soon. We are thankful that God is in control and that he is holding Caden in his hands even though we can't hold him in ours.