Monday

Brody had a good day again today.  He is completely off the nitric oxide and the ROCoronium (muscle relaxer).  He is now being kept sedated and pain controlled by Versed (like Valium) and Morphine.  They started feeding him 3mL per hour (very little) through a tube that was inserted during his surgery past his stomach, past the ulcer, and into the intestines.

The long term ventilation option I spoke about in an earlier post involves putting a traecheostomy in. Last week on Friday, the doctors thought it was necessary and scheduled him for Tuesday (tomorrow).  That is now postponed due to how much progress Brody has made this weekend.  We are tentatively scheduled for Thursday, but the next 24 hours will tell.  The purpose of the traech is to prevent damage to the vocal cords from the air tube being in his throat too long.  They do not want kids intubated for more than 1 month.  Brody has been intubed for almost 3 weeks now, so if the traech happens, it will be soon.  We are not too excited about it, but we've come to terms with it.  Whatever Brody needs, we are okay with.  But they started talking about it when Brody was on high ventilator support and had low oxygen saturations.  Now, Brody has high oxygen saturations, lower vent settings, and is weaning off the sedation.  The two big things that will make the traech unnecessary is if Brody can start breathing on his own (after the sedation is weaned enough he will start breathing more than what the vent is doing for him) and if he does not have any setbacks during this process that might prolong the amount of time he will need the ventilator.

Brody has periods of wakefulness, he is opening his eyes, and he recognizes our voices and faces.