My oh my what a day! We received word this morning that Greyson was doing well and they had written orders to continue the DEX (steroid) a little longer and ween his vent rate by 6 every 6 hours provided his blood gasses were good. Well when we arrived at the hospital at 2:30pm (yes I got out of working tonight and got to go!) his nurse told me he was at a rate of 30. I was puzzled and said “what a minute that’s not right!”. Of course I was doing the math based on what he was at when I had last talked to the nurse reducing the number by 6 every 6 hours. Well he continued to do well so they weened him even faster than expected. So they had just turned him down to a rate of 30 and were doing a gas. His co2 had jumped to 60. Not terrible but up 10 from the last gas. The Dr. decided to stay aggressive on the ween and turned him down to a rate of 25. I was sure his gas would be even higher since they had turned him down some more, but his gas came back with a c02 of 47. So they turned him down to a rate of 20. At 7:30pm we all waited (with the Dr. not far away as he was very interested to see what the numbers were!) for another gas to come back. If it was good they would try to extubate Greyson. It came back with a c02 of 57. So just before 8pm tonight they extubated Greyson and put him on a cpap.
**Very Important note–Most babies “fail” the first time they are extubated. This usually happens sometime within 48 hours of being extubated because they get tired out. For Greyson this will be compounded as they ween him off the DEX. Basically once they remove the DEX his lungs go back somewhat to where they were before he got the DEX. Having said that the process of being extubated, even for a short time, is a MAJOR step forward. Even if he has to be put back on the vent (which he probably will) this time off of it allows his lungs a chance to heal and helps him develop his breathing muscles.
OK so after breathing on his own (with cpap which is constant positive air pressure), his blood gas c02 was 56. He will have another gas at midnight. Soooooo……so far so good! We stayed for a couple hours with our hands on the camera hoping we could capture his first cry but unfortunately he hadn’t cried by the time we left. Again time will tell but we are certainly celebrating the fact that at least for awhile, Greyson is breathing on his own!
We also briefly got to see his face completly free from any tubes! Hope you enjoy the picture!
YEA!!!!!!!!! Way to go Greyson!!!!!! It was so cool to visit when Greyson was doing so well. I was flying home just waiting for the news of whether or not he was able to get extubated. I got off the plane and very quickly called mom to tell her I had landed as she was picking me up from the airport…only to find out that she could not wait and had already called Bob and Stacy to get the news. What a miracle! I am so excited for all three of you and just can not wait to see what God will do next.! Thank you so much for the great visit it was so much fun to see Greyson … not only see him to TOUCH him. HE IS GORGEOUS!
I just want to praise God for all He has done and I so enjoyed seeing little Greyson without any tubes. He has come a long ways and I know God has big plans for this little one.
:’) He is gorgeous. God is so amazing and Greyson is soo strong. He gets it from his amazing parents. Continued prayers.