10:00am – Hooray ! Aaric is officially off the ventilator – it was removed at 5:15am which means that he was able to eat for the first time in almost 36 hours – 2 whole ozs of milk. He’s doing very well and will be moved to the step down unit shortly once a couple of items stabilize. For the sake of information I’ll elaborate as much as I can:
His blood pressure is a bit on the high side (121/68) so he is on some blood pressure medication to help drive that a bit lower. The docs are aiming for a systolic average in the high 50’s / low 60’s.
In addition, his pulse oxygen levels drop (as low as 60) each time they remove the nasal oxygen cannula. He does great with the oxygen, but they’d like to see him doing better without. He’s definately keeping us on our toes on this front – he continues to try to pull the cannula out, and quite often succeeds, which sets off an alarm, which makes us all run over to help get it back in. He’s fiesty.
Neither of the items above are cause for concern – just stepping stones on the way to recovery. We’ll keep posting…but in the meantime here’s a quick look at the kid.