swing ... and a miss

While we were hoping to finally have Samuel home with us this evening, it has turned out not to be so. The Drs feel that he might still be needing O2 a little (especially when he's in a deep sleep) so it would be unwise to send him home with us where we aren't currently set up to monitor his saturation levels. So ... we're back in our house this evening and he is sleeping still in room 5614 in the PICU.

Some backstory to fill in the holes since Tuesday. We decided to have the G-J tube placed. That took place on Thursday morning and came off without a hitch. The folks doing it thought general anesthesia would be the way to go, so, despite our dismay at that prospect, we went forward with it anyway and the anesthesiologists said everything went 'perfectly.' They began his feeds back even that day, albeit at 1/4 the full rate. So he started back at a rate 9cc/hr for 8hrs till they say that he was doing well. Then they bumped him up to 18cc/hr for another 8hrs and on and on until we got to the 36cc/hr which was his rate before the G-J tube placement. They decided not to stop there, however, and he is currently at 40cc/hr. Over 20hrs for the day (he gets a 4hr break during the day) he is therefore getting 800cc. That's about 27ish ounces.

So far, he has handled this feeding setup quite well and we have been very pleased to not have any spit up with milk (well, Neocate) in it. However, this hasn't curbed his reflux. He still does that some and will occasionally spit up as well. Now his spit up is just a small amount of gastric juices. So it goes. We are a little concerned that he will now be aspirating acidic gastric juices exclusively, even if at a lower volume. Doesn't really seem like a good thing to have in your lungs, but we'll talk with Drs about that tomorrow.

Since having the G-J tube placed, he certainly seems more comfortable and more like his former self. He had not needed Oxygen much (if at all) and therefore we were hoping that they'd send us home today. Alas, 'twas not to be. So, tomorrow will be his 3rd Sunday in a row in the hospital. Not really how we are wanting to spend our day of rest, but our father knows what is best for us and (in our sane moments) we know he is not holding out on us or on our son.

So, what we are needing to see is that his O2 need continues to decline - frankly he doesn't really have one now, but I think nurses and respiratory therapists that don't know him get antsy and put O2 back on him when he might not actually need it. Hopefully, as his aspirations become less, his lungs will be able to heal more and more and he will be better able to breathe and oxygenate. At this point we are hoping to bring him home tomorrow, but Monday is most likely more likely - if you follow.

We're looking forward to worship in the morning, but more so to when we as a whole family worship together without concern of these medical needs. May Jesus bring that day quickly.