Sunday, February 22

Well Caden continues to be the comeback kid. This morning brought better news for our family. His abdomen swelling had gone down by another centimeter to 36.5 and the redness around the g-tube had subsided significantly. The pediatric surgeons came by and were happy with what they saw. They indicated the decline in size and redness pointed to a skin infection rather than a leak in the tube. This means he will not need any subsequent procedure to fix the leak. This is great news! In addition they thought there was no longer any need to have the rectal tube.

During rounds they were also very happy to see his progress. They plan to start weaning his ventilator today starting by reducing his nitric oxide. They will make one change at a time to see how he tolerates it, but they are hopeful he will make good progress. The plan is to extubate Monday or Tuesday depending on how fast he progresses.

His labs all looked really good today and his urine output is great, which also bodes well for his progress. They plan to keep him on his antibiotics given the indication of a skin infection, but this seems to be well under control. The other big thing that will be happening today is the removal of the rest of his chest stitches. Had he not had the g-tube surgery and the complications that followed they would have come out before now.

If all goes as planned Tuesday should be a big day for us. He will have his g-tube stitches removed, he will be extubated and they will start feeds. These will all be significant milestones on his road to going home. Please pray for his continued recovery and progress as we look forward to going home soon.