Casual Conversations

Each day I ponder what's been going on and if there's really any material worth sharing with whoever is out there. I don't want to lose Thomas' audience with a lack of news or force unnatural writing to fill space. Fortunately, this blog seems to write itself at times. Thus brings us to the conversation we had with Tina (Thomas' weekend-night-time primary nurse) when we visited this evening. Tina, and most of the nurses, has a very casual way of describing what would probably be somewhat scary events in a manner that makes me at least, lose the significance of what she tells me until after I already know things are alright. I believe it comes from a lot of things becoming almost routine and therefore almost uneventful to them. So I will describe the conversation, but my bedside manner isn't as good as her's. Just know that it wasn't a big deal and everything is fine.

Thomas has got some liquid and/or mucus in his lungs that they are trying to break up and clear out. Tonight, before we got there, his breathing vital started to decrease and then his heart beat dropped. Basically, because of the stuff on his lungs, they clamped up. Tina described as kind of like a charlie horse in your chest. This means he isn't responding to the respirator and his lungs seize up. So she had to get the assistance of another nurse and while Tina used the manual respirator, the other nurse suctioned the liquid from his lungs. They pulled out a good amount of junk, which is good, and got him settled down. Then he was fine. Tina said that sometimes the manual respirator doesn't work and you have to let them "see the light" before they settle down on their own and the muscles relax. It seems worse reading it than it really was.

The respiratory specialist came by to check on him while we there and said he was doing very well. She did a percussion treatment on him, which basically is a little massaging tool to loosen up the gunk. Thomas responded very well, seemed to like it, which the specialist said most babies don't.

So overall a good visit. He was very peacefully sleeping on his tummy, which he likes more than on his back. Just occasionally opening one eye and checking us out. He looks really healthy, filling out his skin and losing his runway model-like features.

His vital stats for today are as follows:
Height - not sure, he was laying down, but I think he's still 10 inches
Weight - 1 pound 7 ounces! Growing good
O2 mix - Consistently less than 30 %
40 yard dash - 5.6 seconds, but there was a strong head wind in the hallway, his isolet wheels are a little sticky and I have a tight hamstring.