Give Santa Directions To Duke

Carter has had a rough few days. We think after his misbehavin' ways this week, he's bought himself a ticket to Christmas at Duke, so I hope someone tells Santa where to find him!

Wednesday was just one big meltdown--the entire day. The only time he would sleep was when he wore himself out from crying and holding his breath, and even sleeping he wasn't comfortable. he was so angry he yanked my hair and pulled my gown off. Nurse Shanda and I felt so helpless because he was so pitiful, but the withdrawals are only going to get better with time. He's on medication to take the edge off the withdrawal effects, but they are given in single doses and his little body has had a constant morphine drip basically since birth. So, it's just going to take time for his body to learn to function without it. (Shanda--he laughed at Brad tonight and hasn't had a snit fit yet, just like we talked about!!)

Sometime between late Wed. night and early Thurs. morning he began to desat and was showing some labored breathing, so they placed a nasal cannula with 25-30% O2 (but no flow) to help him. They did a chest x-ray, which showed some fluid on his lungs. His white counts are normal, so they don't think it's pneumonia. He's not been taking oral feeds, so it's not likely to be aspiration from that. He's back on a diuretic to help him pee off the extra fluids, which we hope does the trick. We don't really know the cause of the fluid, but one theory is that he got so tired from Wed's meltdown that he didn't have the energy for his lungs to oxygenate properly. It could also be from reflux.

This of course happened when I had to go back to work for the first time Thursday night. I hate not being there to get the details on what's going on, but Brad's doing a great job keeping me informed and sending me cell phone pictures :) For the entire three hour drive home today, I begged God to heal him and to give the doctors and nurses the wisdom to make him better. I am comforted that he's in great hands though, which makes it just a teeny bit easier to be away. I'll probably get a speeding ticket on the way back this weekend.

Obviously, feeding therapy has been put on the back burner for now. Once he gets through the serious withdrawals, they can really get back to work with him. Ahh...the CDH roller coaster.

Nurse Lindzie bought Carter a Christmas tree for his crib and it's so cute! I'll work on getting a picture of Carter and his tree for the blog. And thanks to Nurse Susanna for washing his crusty hair and neck!

Turkey Day Update

Here's Carter laughing at his silly Daddy!

We hope that all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Huge thanks go out to Jes & Ashley's church for bringing us all the yummy food.

Carter is still breathing on his own. He does not need any oxygen support, so he doesn't need a cpap or nasal cannula--just his nose and mouth! :) He's feeding through the NG tube still, eating 2 oz. every 3 hours and still no reflux. Brad was able to get him to suck on his paci tonight and he actually kept it in his mouth all by himself. His sweet nurse moved Carter to a big-boy crib and promised to give him lots of snuggles while we get some sleep. She gave him a mohawk hair style last night, which you can see in the picture above.

Also, I apologize if the Thanksgiving post was insensitive. I guess I should clarify that we are not thankful for the existence of CDH, but we are thankful for the blessings we've received despite it. I feel guilty each and every day for the time we have with Carter that other families don't have with their children.

All By Myself

So I thought after all the commotion the last few days with holding and feeds, I could take a break from blogging for a couple of days. But, Carter had other ideas and as of 8:00 am he's been breathing on his own!! They extubated him this morning and he's breathing room air without the help of a cannula. He's doing very well and seems to love being able to sleep curled up on his tummy--although he can't get too used to it since he can't sleep that way at home. He had a few bouts of desatting about 4 hours after extubation, but they quickly figured out that his vocal chords are a little swollen and now he's under a "tent" that gives him moist air + a breathing treatment. That seemed to work, so hopefully the inflammation will reduce soon and he can come back out from under the tent. There don't seem to be any lung issues since he's satting very high and is on no oxygen support. It's such a treat to be able to FINALLY see his face without tubes and tape.