More Improvement

Hudson continues to get bigger and stronger each and every day. He is currently still weaning off narcotics and his vapotherm at very slow rates...and tolerating the changes!! They have tried weaning him several different ways...but slow is the the only way he continues to improve... He is now on clonidine for opiate withdrawal to try and help him have a more comfortable transition to life without methadone and valium...won't that be nice! He has been on heavy narcotics his whole life so it has been quite a challenge. Also, he is now on the lowest level of vapotherm (5 liters per minute..and we started on 12). He has been on vapotherm for almost 3 weeks and once he proves that he can breathe without distress on 5 they will pull the vapotherm and start a regular oxygen nasal cannula with is a lot less flow. This will be a huge transition! He did have some pulmonary edema show up (fluid in the lungs)but with extra diuretics we have seen much improvement...whew! Mommy and Daddy were so very thankful that it was only fluid...his chest xray had been worsening for a couple of days and we were very concerned it could be a perfusion problem (blood flow to lungs)and he would need a cardiac catherization....but so far that is not neccessary. Since he is nine weeks old this week and has never seen life outside the CVICU we have tried to make his life as normal as we can. He probably has the coolest ICU room ever at this point...of course the safari animals...we call it the "Safari Suite"....his one of a kind giraffe swing with the best surround sound noise maker ever...and all sorts of cute toys/eye candy for him to stare at and develop good eye coordination! Oh..and I almost forgot..we now have his own bathtub in his room and we have given him a real bath for the past 3 nights before bed to try and get him on some sort of a routine for when we get to go home. He's not too sure about bath time but always chills out for a couple of hours after his bath and just stares at his toys....so I think he really likes to feel clean.....not to mention the only time he wakes up crying the past couple of nights is when he has dirty pants....smart boy!!! He likes to be clean!! And...if all goes well this week and he can successfully get off the vapotherm then we will be moved up to the recovery floor....yeah!!!!