Elias!

There is a little bit of good news to share this morning. With all that has happened the last few days, we will take it in any dose, no matter what. Elias has made some improvement the last two nights. When we arrived yesterday his oxygen level on the oscillator was down from 100% to 87% and by the time we left the hospital it was lowered to 84%. His swelling had gone down some as the fluids were starting to exit the body. This morning his oxygen level is down to 43%. The plan is to get it down to 30% then ween the nitrous and eventually take him off the oscillator and put him back on the ventilator. Then we will be back to our starting point and work towards extubation.

After talking to the doctors yesterday here is what they have been able to determine about what happened:

1. The feeding did not cause this problem, at least not directly. It was too small an amount.
2. They are not contributing the fluid in the lungs this time to Chylothorax, but they are still not 100% certain that this has been corrected.
3. The strongest lead they have is a potential microscopic leak may be present in the esoughogus or there may still be a tiny fistula attaching the esophagus to the trachea further down that was not detected. This would explain the rapid build-up of fluids with the minimal amount of breast milk introduced to Elias. It was too small an amount to show chylothorax.
4. It is possible that he has developed a pneumonia, but they do not believe that is the case.
5. They are still not ruling out the potential for bleeding in the lungs (hemorrhage, general bleeding, etc.) but this is not very likely considering the lack of certain symptoms and blood during suctioning.

Elias is as usual fighting hard by bouncing back. Yesterday he was moving around but not alert. It was mostly from agitation and being kept in the one position. It was good to see those movements especially since Friday he was literally lifeless with no movement the entire 10 hours we were there. We are so grateful for the progress he has been able to make the last 48 hours. It was such a relief to go in yesterday and hear that the doctors were able to narrow the focus and have him make some progress. We were very concerned on Friday. It was difficult to hear the doctors say he is really sick and we don't know why. It was so hard to sit there and watch him struggle, feeling helpless and worse yet not knowing if the doctors could do anything to help him. As usual they rose to the occasion, worked out the scenario, and developed a plan to fix it.