Extubation Day

Today was the planned day for extubation. We missed doctor rounds this morning as they came by a little earlier than usual. But they did say they were still planning on extubating today. He had been sprinting again since 7 am and was doing well with it. The nurses changed all his dressings and got everything ready for extubation. In the meantime, one of the surgeons came in and took out the RA line which was put in during surgery and went directly into his heart. That came out without difficulty and no bleeding.

Then when they were ready to extubate him, they decided to put him on high-flow oxygen instead of CPAP and see how he handled it. They took the tube out and suctioned him and put the high-flow on and he did really well. After the initial increase in blood pressure and heart rate, he settled down and went to sleep. He would wake up occasionally and try to cry a little bit, but overall handled it quite well and was breathing well. The blood-gas they took after he'd been off the ventilator for half an hour was down from the last time it was checked so that was good news. They will take a chest x-ray around 3 pm to see how the lungs look at that point. But all indicators show that he is doing well and they should be able to leave him off the ventilator. We are so grateful!

The nurses said they would probably be able to move him into another room later today or tomorrow, depending on space. But the other two rooms they have are more quiet and also less brightly lit which is easier on the babies. And, hopefully he will get the remainder of the tubes out and we can hold him again soon. It's a good day! We are so happy with the progress he has made in the last three days. What a fighter Caden is. Thank you for your prayers.