Monday ~~~~~ DAY 61

Hello friends and family,

Hope this finds you all well. I know that you have all been wanting an update. I wish I had something great to tell you but I don't. I think we are pretty much holding down the tiles in room #72.

With that said, Joshua is doing pretty well. According to Dr Baden they spent a considerable amount of time talking about him at conference today. The conclusion is that they will do another cath to see what changes, if any, have happened since the last one. Last time he had a cath he was pretty sick and still on the vent. Dr Hardy wants to make sure that we have the best and most up to date information to base this major decision on. I am so glad that he is involved in our sons care. He is a fabulous Dr and man. So many people around here have the utmost respect for him. I feel that says a lot. We are VERY lucky to have his expertise in Western Montana. (I consider ourselves DOUBLE lucky because we also have the best nurse in Missoula. :) )

So in a nutshell here is what has happened this week.

They stopped the Milrinone today. A couple days a go they started a beta blocker to see if that will help decrease his heart rate. It has helped. Last night he spiked a fever of 102.8. I believe this is the highest that he has been. They cultured him and it came down fast. I doubt anything will grow. Dr Law and Dr Mazor think that they should figure out a different plan for the diuresis. They think the fevers could be caused by the Lasix. We will see how they change this up in the next couple days. He has been having a lot of problems with his potassium level so that has to be taken into account with the different diuretic medicines. He has been pretty fluid positive at the end of each day.

The fellow came in and talked to me for a bit tonight. Evidently they ran some tests on his thyroid recently. I am going to have to do some investigation to see what this all means but they measured a couple things. The hormones that are produced measured out ok, but the hormones that stimulate the thyroid to produce the other hormones was pretty elevated. He said that this could have to do with several things including having a bad heart, but an endocrinologist will be coming to examine him sometime this week.

Some statistics:

Weight ~ 18.3 (up from 15.2)

Height ~ 25 inches

O2 Sat ~ 70 - 85 ( from .5 to 3 liters of O2)

Heart Rate ~ 146-190

They are also still working on his wean. He is getting oral ativan and his Dilaudid is down to 13. Today is the first day that has been dropped in a long time.We will see how he handles the changes.

James and Trevor went home yesterday. It was so nice having them here and feeling like we were a whole family again. I will miss that.

If anyone has been trying to reach me....it will be easier now. My cell has been quirky. If you call me at the hospital, let them know to check with me before transferring the call. Some people will ask and some won't. The phone doesn't ring all the time and I know that I have missed some calls.

Thanks for checking on us.

Love and blessings,

Leah and Joshua

Oh.....new slide show at bottom of page.