Just pretend it's 5 in the morning

I just remembered that I forgot to post last night...sorry. There was no reason behind it, I just never got around to it and then was very tired when I woke up on the couch and headed to bed. Andrew had a pretty good day yesterday, and that continued throughout the night. Every gas has been good, enough to wean him down to 10 breaths per minute, which they consider minimal settings. He had his first sprint last night, which lasted an hour, and he'll have his second this morning, lasting two hours. He's continued to spit up a little bit, and unfortunately there's bile in it because the GJ-tube is holding open the lower portion of the stomach, but there doesn't seem to be much milk in it. That means he's getting the nutrition and only spitting up because he's sensitive to the tube being in his mouth, suctioning, multi-tasking, etc. There are never good reasons for throwing up, but those are certainly better than not tolerating the feeds. We hope that having the tube out will solve the issue.

New doctor, new plan. Instead of being a little more aggressive and extubating on Monday, the new doctor wants to give him a few more days of sprinting and extubate around Thursday. Everyone, including us, thinks this will provide the ideal situation for extubation, and give him the best chance of being successful. However, we have seen several times in the past that delays can come from many angles, and losing another arterial line could set him back several days and delay the plan. We are hopeful that everything will work as intended, but we would be incredibly frustrated if delayed by circumstances beyond Andrew's control. If that happens, we'll have to have a long, hard talk with the doctors about the plan moving forward...we may have to proceed with less-than-ideal circumstances, just so that he has the opportunity to succeed. To quote a massive idiot, "You have to go to war with the army you have, not the army you want."

He had a great night, was fabulous on his sprint, and didn't spit up at all throughout the night. He did spit up this morning, but it was stomach juices and bile...no milk. Yesterday he was awake and personable most of the time we were there, and never got grumpy enough to require any significant assistance. They'll be slowly increasing his feeds (he's now at 6 cc per hour) and increasing sprint times (they'll try to get up to four hours at a time), and prepare him for Thursday...Wednesday at the earliest.

Frustration level: Blue, with the potential for red with another delay.