Slow and Steady Wins the Race

Christian is slowly progressing. He was taken off of Versed completely (this is his last sedative). His neurostorms aren't nearly as bad and he's having periods of sleep and wake that are apparent. Did I mention I love when he sleeps? Everything relaxes, he takes long, slow, deep, breaths, and he looks like my Christian, just a perfect little angel, untouched by the accident. So peaceful. When he wakes, he moves his arms, although they're reflexive movements, they're movements nonetheless. We call it weight lifting because he bends at the elbow like he's doing tricep curls. We also rolled up little gaws into little dumbbells so he has something to grab on to. This will also prevent his fingers from getting stuck in a clenched position. We're always working on his range of motion so that when he's better, he'll be able to move and his muscles won't be "stuck."

Big news in the last 24 hours are the results of his CPAP trials. These are trials where the doctors turn down his oxygen output to zero. He basically breaths on his own without extubation. They do this for an hour at a time and then test his blood gasses. He's done this 3 times and PASSED EVERY ONE!!! I'm so proud of him. He's just so strong. His reflexive movement of his right arm almost makes him look like he's going for the tube to pull it out. It's like he's saying, "I CAN DO IT MYSELF!!!" Now that's the old Christian showing through.

We aren't talking about extubation quite yet because his lung secretions (I think it sounds like someone with bronchitis and it's caused by his inhalation of water) are still abundant and he doesn't have a strong enough cough and gag reflex. That's fine with me. The doctor, who I love because she's upbeat and aggressive, yet cautious at the same time, doesn't want to set him up for failure. I totally agree. So once the secretions decrease, we'll be ready for extubation. I know it's right around the corner. Then Christian can focus on working on something else, rather than his breathing.



Also, I had a routine OB appointment this morning and the doctor gave me a surprise ultrasound. I told her that if she saw anything that told her what the sex was to give me a heads up so she started looking around. So now I'm pretty sure of who Christian and Gabe will be big brothers to. But I'm not telling until we have it confirmed in two weeks at our big ultrasound. I already know Gabe is the best big brother but Christian will be an awesome big brother, too.

Christian is still sleeping peacefully. Blessings to everyone.