very good...very good indeed

Excellent news. Carson had a great blood gas this morning! The doctors were very happy and they weaned two on his ventilator. He is at a PEEP plus of 13 (he started at 18). We are so proud of Carson and thankful for the answered prayers thus far. The plan is to wean his PEEP plus to very low numbers, then take his rate even lower (it is at 12 right now). Eventually, the doctors will make a decision about trialing CPAP or doing something called "sprint" where they use a trach collar for increasing times each day. For right now, we are just thankful. 

He is still having some bleeding from the area his Broviac was taken out of. They are keeping a pressure dressing on the area and will check it again on Monday. And on January 20th, we should get another ultrasound of Carson's liver. 

Kellen had a fantastic day with Nana Bunch. 

It is Preston's birthday weekend too! Liz and Preston are getting to spend a night on the town and we are praying it is a wonderful time away from the daily challenges they have faced. 

Hope you all are doing well and being blessed greatly for your faithful prayers and support.

Posted by Sarah

update from Uncle James

Today was a pretty good day.

Carson had his broviac taken out (an iv in his leg), once they remove the broviac he started bleeding from it due to the lovenox so on several occasions they had to hold pressure on it. At this point it appears the bleeding has stopped. On a positive note, his G-tube has stopped leaking.

Kellen is continuing to doing well.

Posted by James

lots of praises!

YEAH!!! Carson got to wean today!!! They went down to 15 on his PEEP Plus settings on the inspiratory pressure. That is the setting that he gets when he breaths.

Poor little guy is having all sorts of fits with his G-tube. After it overflowed yesterday, they just put him back to the G-tube and took away the button because it was leaking. Today, it was still leaking, so they had to put a stick in next to it to keep it from leaking.

They plan to take out his Broviac tomorrow which is another IV into his artery. His liver enzymes are almost back to normal which is an excellent sign. His AFP (one of the tumor markers) is also continuing to drop.

All in all a good day!! Hopefully, the blood gases will continue to be good.

January 10

Well, poor little Carson had to deal with less than adequate amounts of milk the past 24 hours... they swithced to a G-button (a lower profile access) yesterday but since that time milk had been leaking (well gushing at times) with every feeding. Today, they made the decision to switch back to a G-tube until he gets a little bigger and the site heals better. Otherwise, no other changes were made today. Hopefully tomorrow we can begin the weaning process again after a blood gas is drawn. Big news for me (and a sigh of relief), I changed out his tracheostomy tube today without any hiccups or feeling like I was going to pass out and also gave him a Lovenox injection (as we will likely be on this for up to 6 months). Preston and I are sure learning alot through all of this!

Kellen continues to do well, he was pretty sleepy today which I would guess is due to his 'not so fun shots' yesterday and the Tylenol he had after a low-grade fever last night. Everyone be praying he isn't up ALL night : )

doc visit for Kellen

Kellen survived his 2-month shots. Poor little fella screamed at the top of his lungs according to Liz and Preston, but quickly decided he was feeling better. He was 8 lbs. 11 oz and 20.5 inches long. He is growing like a champ. He doesn't have to see the doctor again until 4 months (for more shots... no wonder kids don't like doctors). 

Carson got his button today, which makes feeding him through his G-tube a lot easier. He did well. He took 60 mL from his bottle, so that was fantastic and almost a full feeding. They did not wean on the ventilator. He had a fever last night, so they checked labs and blood gases and he was up on his CO2 to 59. He didn't have any changes indicating infection and his fever went away, but they are not going to change his ventilator today. Keep praying for him...we need good progress in the next couple weeks on weaning his ventilator.

We are so thankful that you are joining with us in prayer!

Posted by Sarah

Carson had a good blood gas this morning. We thought they might wean, but they are going to wait to make any more changes until tomorrow. They don't want to take too much blood from Carson getting blood gases all the time, so they will wait and do the blood gas in two days and wean tomorrow so we can check to see how he does with changes tomorrow. 

I forgot to mention, but he got switched to all breast milk rather than 1/2 formula and 1/2 breast milk about a week ago and is doing well. Other than that, all is the same. 

Kellen has his appt. tomorrow and gets his 2-month shots... Bummer! But he will be brave and handle it like a champ. We will see what he weighs in at tomorrow... the race is on between Carson and Kellen to see who is the heavyweight this time!

Please continue to be in prayer for Carson's lungs...thank you so, so much!!!

Posted by Sarah

a day in the NICU

Carson's ventilator was moved to a rate of 12 and the PEEP plus pressure was reduced from 18 to 17. Big vent changes in comparison to what we have done! They are getting a gas tomorrow am, so we will see how he does. We think he is going to do fantastic. His weight is 8 lbs 3.8 ozs so he is really growing. He continues to work on his two bottles a day and smiling nice and big for mommy and daddy. :)

Kellen is doing great. He has his appointment on Monday to see how much he weighs and get the dreaded shots at 2 months! No fun. Two month birthday tomorrow!!! We are so thankful for all the progress in the last two months.

Posted by Sarah

Carson busy thinking about how he can get
more of those yummy bottles

Kellen doing his best impression of a tiny ANGEL