Scared of the dark

Apparently Andrew is scared of the dark, or at least scared at night. He seems to make a lot of progress during the day, then take a step back at night. Fortunately, he's still taking two steps forward and one back, not the other way around. And, this portion of the recovery is probably the most traumatic, considering that he's less than 36 hours past his last surgery.

Yesterday they were able to turn the amplitude (strength) on the hi-fi vent back to 34 (from 36), they turned the nitric oxide percentage down from 20 to 10, and they turned the oxygen percentage down from 53 to 46. All really good signs, though the nitrix oxide number is a bit misleading...even though they cut it in half in one day, they aren't going to be able to wean him completely for a long time.

However, last night his blood gas levels weren't quite as good, so they had to turn the vent back up to 36. The other two levels stayed the same, but he also needed some extra blood (for a low hematocrit level)....not a big deal. This morning his numbers were borderline, so they aren't going to try and come down any more for a little while. They'll probably reconsider tonight.