Day 84

Gestational Age: 36 weeks 2 days

Josh is doing better in some ways and worse in others. He is breathing better. I think the threat of the oscillator made him want to behave. They have decreased his vent settings and he is doing fairly well. He really has blown up like a balloon. Because of the fluid gain, the skin on his back is breaking down and he has some splitting of the skin there. They are trying to rotate him on his sides to alleviate pressure on his back and let that area heal. He looks like he went a few rounds with [insert any famous boxer name here] . Picture at the bottom. Brace yourselves. This is not the adorable little man that we put up here a few days ago. Dr. McKee, his surgeon is pleased with his progress so far. The fluid gain is not unreasonable and less than she thought. She thinks by Monday they will do a contrast study to make sure that everything is healing well before they start feeds. They finally were able to manage his pain at about 10pm last night. They started a morphine drip vs giving him a dose every 3 hours and he is much more comfortable and able to be still and heal like he needs to do. So that is all for today. Dave and I both feel better today and think that although he looks like hell, he is on the road to recovery.