Are We There Yet?

Kazoo Lips and Puppy Dog Hat. (Because, why not?)

William is generally doing okay, and Mom and Dad are learning all the little details of how to care for a trach (dressing cares, tie changes, trach changes, etc.) His lungs are still pretty junky, and he has a lot to clear out, so he's taking a little longer than expected to get completely off the vent (though really, he's just on CPAP, which means that while technically still on a vent, he isn't really needing the full support a vent provides). So he's making progress, but isn't cooperating as much as we would like. His demeanor has been pretty much normal, though, and he's providing plenty of entertainment (as demonstrated in picture).

And who else isn't cooperating as much as we would like? If you answer "John-Raven," give yourself a high five! Last Friday, he began having a little respiratory trouble. It didn't seem to be much of a problem until Saturday when he began really dropping his sats and running a fever. Sunday came, and he wasn't any better. We even had to briefly raise his oxygen to four liters just to keep his sats close to 90. Thankfully, that didn't last long, but it was enough to signal that he needed to be looked at more closely. One trip to Cook Children's Emergency later, and we had some answers: an x-ray showed the start of some pneumonia in one of his lungs, his white blood count was slightly elevated (though not actually in the "high" range), and his lactic acid was just barely outside of the normal range. All of which indicated that we were at the front end of Random Annoying Sickness, so we went home and continued to treat him with steroids and antibiotics and pulmonary treatments and other things of the hit-him-with-everything-and-hope-this-works variety. He's already much better, so with any luck, he'll be fully recovered soon. Just in time for summer break.