A Little Better

Today has been a really busy day here at Dell Children's Hospital ICU room 45. We started out really well. Brandon was awake, watching Disney and laughing for at least 50% of the day. His color looks much better. His lungs are still full in the lower lobes, but better in the upper. One side is better than the other. The goal is to take him off the breathing machine and transition him to oxygen. We tried to lower his oxygen rate on the BiPap, but slowly Brandon's saturation rates went down during the day. Therefore, we had to up the level of oxygen he is getting on the BiPap machine. We will try again tomorrow to lower the oxygen rate on the BiPap and transition to oxygen through a mask. We are sill in ICU and will be here as long as he is on the Bipap. Brandon's temperature was good today, but again tonight it is up. Right now at 102.

The Infectious Disease doctor came by today and said that she is estimating based on today that Brandon will be here between 10 to 14 more days and that once released he will be extremely weak and unable to go to school for at least two weeks after release. The goal she discussed was getting the fever under control and trying to clear the lungs. Right now there is very thick mucous and fluid on the lungs that need to be cleared. She said recovery wil be slow.

Brandon also had two IV's go out today. One of them leaked 90 cc's of fluid into his hand. The hand was very swollen and is now draining. It will take days to clear, but it is much better than this morning.

The good news for the day is that everyone is now talking recovery. That is much better than the alternative, even if it is a long slow process. The best news is that Brandon was really happy today 9/9/09 and ready for all the new Beatles CDs and Beatles rock band. He laughed throughout the day and interacted with everyone. Little baby steps getting better is great with me. More tomorrow.
Leah