Today is a better day...

Ethan's heart rate is down and his ventilator only beeped a few times, but that was pretty much just when he was being "done up". And for those who don't know what "done up" means it's when the nurses change his position, take his temperature, measure his belly, give him a Tylenol suppository, check his abdominal pressure using the catheter in his bladder, and doing mouth care. His care is "blocked" which means all of the things listed above are only done every 4 hours, rather than all day so he has time to rest in between. 


Sometimes things need to be done in between the blocks if he's fussing from being uncomfortable so they suction his mouth, check if his catheter is blocked, draw back on the NG to check for air in his tummy and if none of those work then he is given a bolus of pain medication and/or sedative (basically a top up).


We got to see Ethan's beautiful eyes for a few moments today. He looked around and focused in on us for a second before closing his eyes again. We're glad he knows that we are there with him through all of this.
He also got the epidural in the late afternoon! It seems to be working so far. They haven't reduced any of the fentanyl or midazolam yet because they want to give it time to freeze Ethan's tummy.I'm guessing they will wait until rounds tomorrow to come up with a plan to wean him off the narcotics.


Thank-you to mom, Tanya, Lucy, Custodia and Nigel for coming to visit us today....it always makes things a little easier to deal with when we get visitors.