Today we had another big accomplishment for Elijah. He was switched off of the heavy-duty ventilator which was putting very quick, short breaths into him, and now we are on the regular ventilator which does long, slow breaths. This machine resembles actual breathing patterns. So now we are just working on weaning him off of this machine and making sure he is able to breathe on his own again. I asked for an estimated time and the nurse said it totally depends on him, but she would guess about a week left on this machine.
The only negative thing today was that his CO2 output is kind of high, and got higher when they put him on the regular ventilator. However, since everything else for him is looking great, they are just going to accept this high level as sort of normal for him and keep him as he is unless it gets any worse. I asked what it meant when the CO2 output was high and I'm still not totally understanding it, but it gives an indication that there may be some collapse in the lung or mucus blockage which is preventing him from exhaling well.
He is up to full feedings now through the feeding tube in his nose, which means he's not taking any nutrition intravenously, so they've cut down on his IV fluids. This also means he is not as swollen as he was and he looks much better! They've also been moving him around more to keep him comfortable.
Again, we are just in a waiting period. So I will continue to update whenever anything changes. Please continue to pray. We have not defeated this yet. I've heard people asking what they can pray for specifically right now and besides praying for quick healing we ask that you pray for answers. Pray that the doctors will be able to figure out what caused all of this so that they will know exactly how to treat it, and hopefully so we will know how to prevent it in the future. Thank you so much! Please keep the prayers and the encouragement coming! God bless!
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