June 19, 2008

Max is off the vent...again!

Max was taken off of the vent yesterday (Wednesday) after a second scope on Tuesday showed that things were looking good with his "new" airway. There was a little bit of swelling, so they gave him two doses of steroids and left him on the vent until the next day. He is doing very well without needing any assistance.

When I went in to see him after he was extubated, he was very cranky and fidgety. He was also doing a lot of gagging. Nothing would calm him down. So they did an assessment type test to see if he could possibly be going through withdraw from being on the verced and morphine for eleven days or so. The results showed that he is. So they will be giving him a dose of Methadone twice a day for a few days to help him get past it. The poor little guy is miserable, so hopefully this will work and we will have our little cuddle bug back.

It looks like nephrology is going to start dialysis next week, most likely on Monday. It is nothing that is an emergency, but his levels have stabilized which is what they were sort of waiting for. Hopefully this means that they will only need the two or three weeks to get everything figured out with how much he needs and how often, then we can bring him home! He is gaining the weight that they wanted him too as well! We still have to work on feeding orally instead of with the feeding tube. I would assume that once his throat heals a little more (from having the tube in there for so long and from the surgery)that they will try to introduce the bottle to him again.

So, a few prayer requests would be for dialysis to go well and for him to be able to handle it, that he starts eating from a bottle so that we don't have to come home with a g-tube, for him to continue to gain weight, and for us to not run into anymore "speed bumps."

Thank you again for everything!

Beth, Tim and Max

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh that poor little guy. I'm glad he is doing good though it's just so sad to see them go through so much. Good thing is that he is so young he will never remember it. Looking at how happy my 25 weeker preemie is and everything he went through is proof they won't remember 1 second of it.

Take care and thinking of you guys!

Denise
Matilda&Leon

Rachael Schirano \\ Rachael Schirano Photography said...

i am so happy to hear that he is continuing to improve and doing better with each day. being off the vent is a huge step and although i am sure it is difficult, the methadone will surely help bring your cuddlebug back. consider your prayer requests granted...little max is never far from my thoughts.

Catrina said...

Wow, I am glad things are going better. I am continuing to pray for him to do well! Take care!

Catrina
cat81305

Anonymous said...

You guys don't know me but my mom works with Beth's mom. I have a Max too, he is 4! I was excited to hear you guys liked the name! I have a new baby as well. His name is Will born April 3rd as well as a 5 year old named Alex. I haven't had a chance to read this entire blog but have followed Max's story via my mom, Cathy Schultz. Max's fighting spirit is inspiring as well as your faith. We will continue to pray for Max and your entire family.

Anonymous said...

Hi Beth! I am so sorry to hear about little Max and everything you guys are going through. I just wanted you to know we are thinking of you all and keeping you in our prayers.

Trisha Iles