8:00 AM

Download from the night nurse confirmed another night of rest, stable vitals.

The storming from yesterday afternoon (which caused the Dex (sedation med) to have to go back up to 1.3 to settle him down) has subsided.

Overnight they were slowly weaning Dex levels, and Los is currently back down to 0.7 on Dex and currently resting comfortably. They will continue that weaning through the day, and study how the other meds help / allow the weaning to continue (lowering fentanyl drip and starting to replace it with morphine doses to see if the morphine can help tamp down the storming reaction).

The pain meds (fentanyl / morphine / etc.) are necessary due to the discomfort and nature of the ventilator / mechanical ventilation process.

The goal for Los today is to continue to wean off Dex (sedation) and encourage Los to get more in the groove with breathing on his own (less and less mechanical ventilation support… having the ventilator as more of a backup in the background that can kick in for minor support when Los needs it)

(Currently waiting for doctor to come in for the morning rounds, and will see how white blood cell counts are looking from the morning labs, x-Ray of lungs, etc.…)

June 5th – 9:15am update

Ventilator has changed to CPAP setting!! From 9:15am – 10:15am Los was powering 100% of his own breaths and breathing all on his own. Little apnea (lapse in breathing) in between breaths, but he quickly responds with a recovery deep breath. He made it through a solid hour of his own breathing before he got a bit tired and number of breaths per minute dropped below 12. (Normal breaths per minute is ~12-20). So they are going to give him a break to recharge, and switch back to CPAP mode off and on today to keep exercising his lungs and get him back into the swing of things there. Lung / breathing specialist + nurse was thrilled with Los’s response to the change to CPAP from full ventilator. Said Los is exercising his lungs / strong lung performance, and will stay on CPAP routine based on initial great results (halfway through the first hour, the lung specialist walked by peaking at the machine and gave massive fist pump of excitement and joy to see Los breathing strong) 💪

Side note “Ventilator for dummies” translation that we got from the Nurse: You can envision a Ventilator as an e-bike with training wheels…. CPAP setting is non-ebike setting (get rid of motor) without training wheels and with mom and dad running behind the bike ready to catch him if he falls. If/when he gets tired (which is normal) they can simply switch the Ventilator setting back on to give Los some “training wheel” support breaks as needed. They will continue this cycle moving forward with the goal he continues to need less frequent breaks.

They said for him to be able to go for a full hour on his first round is great! 🙏

He is getting some new boots to help with ankle / foot deflection (keep his feet more at an upright 90-degree natural angle).

White blood cell counts up slightly from yesterday. But not a big spike / not overly concerning to doctor. But still, something they will be motoring closely for any signs of infection. Continued prayers needed there that white blood cell counts stabilize.

X-ray- today shows more continual improvement in Los’s lungs (doctor was confident we should be clear and out of the woods for the pneumonia risk based on how clear things were looking for this morning).

Wound care specialist confirmed all looks good. No red flags on any of cuts, incisions, or scrapes. Will continue to monitor.

Routine EKG…. Los did not care for the sticky tab that pulled his chest hair after it came off. Seems like a good sign of reacting to specific stimulus.

CT scan from yesterday confirmed no more signs of bleeding in brain yesterday. Bleeding has dried up. 🙏🙏. Prayers are working + signs of God’s healing power

Weaning of Dex continues, along with continuing to study the balancing of the pain meds in conjunction with the Dex.

Let’s go Los!!