Gotta Say It's Been a Good Dade - 9/2/2014

After a restless, uncomfortable night last night, and though today saw a few instances of Dade's grumpier side, he had a pretty good day!  He was very awake and more active than we've ever seen him, and is still recovering fairly quickly when he does get a little verklempt.

Linda knows what's up.

The swelling around his head continues to go down, which tells us that his blood clot issue is resolving! Praise God for that!

Dr. Anderson gave us some very good news today too: he indicated that Dade's level of severity is moving from "acute" to "chronic".  Now, this doesn't mean that we're 100% out of the woods, that we're going home next week, or that we won't encounter some significant bumps in the road as we move forward.  It does mean that we're certainly moving in the right direction.

We have three primary goals from here: 1) Slowly increase his feeding amounts until Dade is at normal levels and can wean from the TPN (liquid nutrition) he's getting, 2) slowly wean off the ventilator to another form of oxygenation support whether that be a CPAP or an oxygen tank with nasal cannulas, and 3) wean off the sedation drugs he's currently on.  Step 3, aka Baby Betty Ford, begins tonight.  Dade has been getting methadone doses throughout the day to help him prepare, and the nurses will watch how he does as he weans off.

We appreciate your continued prayers as we continue down this road!  It's going to be a long, slow trip, but hey... we'll take it!