Here we are at the end of the second week! This was such a long day, the things that happened this morning seemed like a week ago.

We visited Trevor first today. He is making great improvements on eating. He has graduated from the slow flow bottle and is taking a regular one now. He was able to eat a full 60cc in one sitting several times, and while we were there, he took 45cc. He is looking great, it is just a matter of time for him to come home.

Brendan had an extremely busy day. Within 6-8hrs of its placement, his new PICC line got clotted. The catheter lines they have to use are so tiny, it does not take much to clog them up. So he had a special trip to the Interventional Radiology department in the old hospital building. They were able to use an ultrasound guide to achieve proper placement of a new line in his femoral artery so that they could use a larger catheter. The new line tunnels under the skin in his leg so that the entry place is away from his diaper.
It took a team of 5 people to move him down to the 1st floor and through what seemed like a mile long tunnel to get to where they did the procedure. We were able to walk with him to see the doctor and sign the consent and then we waited in his room. They got the new line in well and suspect that it will be fine now. He was slow to wake up from his anesthesia and they had to increase his ventilation until he started to come around.

Speaking of the ventilator.. the doctors this morning put him back on the Milrinone and decided that weaning from the ventilation was a better first step. When they turned everything off, he did have a bad drop in his oxygen profusion and his blood gas test was fairly bad so they set him back to minimal support. They will continue to try to wean him slowly.
We did get to finally meet the surgeon working on his case. After they discussed him this morning, they have decided that they do not want to rush in to the banding procedure. The surgeon believes that his lungs were not as weak or underdeveloped as they suspected when he was born. He really wants to work on getting him off the ventilation to see exactly what they are dealing with before they jump in to surgery that may or may not be necessary.
He feels like they still might be doing the banding by the end of the week, but surgery this afternoon had been discussed and he thinks that is a little hasty.

Lots of pictures today!

The pink forehead thing is back. It is one of several sensors that monitors renal function. And see that new patch on top his head? It is an IV! They’ve poked so many holes in him and he has pulled out so many lines that they had to put the IV in his scalp. I have had IV’s and blood draws in plenty of weird and painful places, but he has me beat!

This is Brendan’s private room. Can you find the baby in all that mess?

Here is the view from Brendan’s window

For contrast, here is the view from my room window. We are/were both on the 5th floor and yes, that is pigeon crap.

A group of volunteers were travelling the halls with a cart of complimentary coffee, tea, and hot chocolate.

Trevor says “Less Camera, More Food!”

His eyes roll back when he has had enough.

Here is Trevor’s bed. There is a very long counter in this room and about 6 babies lined up there. Trevor is lucky enough to be near a window, but it looks out over a liquor store and a laundromat.