Today was… well… uneventful. Sam had a good night on the ventilator. He started to pee around 5 am-which is great. He also responded really well to being on the vent. They talked about taking him on the vent today, but the doctor decided that Sam had earned himself a full day off. Their new plan was to leave him on the vent, but to lower the oxygen and pressure throughout the day, to get things ready to take him off possibly tomorrow.
One of the reasons for the delay is his PDA seems to be back. His heart murmur is stronger, and they are now starting to think that his kidney issues could be related to the PDA. So, tomorrow morning Sam will get an echo, and if the PDA looks large, the plan is to schedule him for surgery. The surgery is done bedside in the NICU and takes less and 30 min to complete. He would stay on the vent until the surgery and would be on it for 2-3 days after the surgery.
While the thought of surgery on such a small guy is terrifying, if it helps stabilize him, I am all for it. There is a good chance this could help resolve a number of his issues… or it might not. Either way, I hope to know more by the end of the day tomorrow.
In the meantime, it has now been 4 days since I have held Sam and it sucks. Our cuddle time brings me such joy- and seems to make him happy. I hope that maybe tomorrow he will be up for a little bit of love. Lord knows that I need it. Desperately.
Now… one of the advantages of the vent is we get to see more of Sam’s face:
In other news… Sam has been growing. Despite them starting him on feeds, then taking him off the feeds, then putting him back on the feeds, etc.. he has been growing. As of this morning, Sam weighed in at 1 lb 14.9 ozs.
And now for your moment of zen (granted the picture is from yesterday- but it is cute)
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