Baby Steps

 It's been 4 days since putting the breathing tube back in and it was a slow and steady weekend. They didn't do a whole lot, but rather kept him nice and comfortable as they worked to break up the junk in his lungs. I was able to go home for the night on Saturday to spend time with the middle and little, who really are proving to be the real troopers in all this. The plan has been to extubate this morning and we were able to stick to that plan. They started coming off of his sedation meds to make sure he would be awake enough to do his own breathing (with the assistance of the BiPAP machine). Once the meds officially wore off and he was awake, he was awake and he was pissed. It took two nurses and myself to hold him steady until the doctor could get there and officially move forward with extubation. The entire process took a good 45 minutes and it was extremely stressful, much like the last time. I try really, really hard to hold it together, but these type of days really test me. Everything all comes out at once. I know he is scared, I know he is in pain, I know he is confused and in the middle of all that, I know he is just trying to breathe. They eventually were able to give him some extra Morphine to settle him down and to calm his breathing. He is resting comfortably right now, but they are keeping a very close eye on him and trying to be very aggressive in clearing his lungs and doing everything possible to not have to put the breathing tube back in. In addition to the breathing, they are also monitoring his chest tube output. Right now he has two chest tubes surgically placed that are draining excess fluid stemming from the surgery. The hope would be that they would have stopped draining by now, but his continue to drain. This was also a problem we dealt with extensively after his first surgery as well. The hope is that the meds he is on to assist will clearing the lungs will also work to dry him up and reduce the drainage from the chest tubes. They plan to do an echo and an ultrasound today just to make sure they aren't missing anything. It would be really nice if we could make some good progress and have Brody in a better place by the weekend to allow the other two to at least FaceTime him. We don't want them seeing their brother the way he is right now and worry them even more, but I also think not seeing him at all, also worries them. Hopefully we are on the right path forward, but I think the next 12-24 hours are going to be huge for his progress.