Amazing

A few days ago I was driving the girls on some shopping errands and we somehow entered into a discussion with Cambria on what qualifies something as "Amazing".  She gave some great examples of amazing things such as a blue sky, flowers, and songs and things perhaps not qualifying as amazing such as dirt and hair (at least Dad's). Well, I think Declan's progress thus far would also qualify as amazing.

Most of yesterday afternoon and into the evening Declan had a very slight fever and they don't like to remove the breathing tube if there is a fever. They don't like anything that could tax the body more than normal when it is forced to return to breathing on his own. The Doctors are very careful to avoid a collapsing lung and take every precaution to avoid it. He was on ice packs and the room was frigid.  They were going to shoot for around midnight or so to remove the breathing tube. And although Declan had this low-grade fever thought the afternoon/early evening it was amazing to watch it slowly decrease up to the time it was removed around 1AM. Declan reacted very well. His breathing was strong and looked great and was able to stay off the ventilator.

And although it was a long night to keep him happy, he reacted well. He couldn't have water, despite his cute throaty, "water?  water?  water?" requests. Around 4AM we resorted to Disney Jr, to occupy Declan, I was out of gas. The other great point of progress was that he continued to stay out of the Junctional Rhythm, continuing to diminish the potential for pacer wires. The goal for the day became to remove as many lines as possible to see if he could move from the ICU to the "Floor" - a great sign of progression.

Later that morning they removed one of his blood pressure lines that do directly into his heart. Removing the line could result in a wide range of bleeding, but once again Declan was a champ and the bleeding was easily controlled with pressure and a bandaid. So through the rest of the day, the other line was removed and they also fell the "hole" in the tunnel was still open - more positives. They felt great about his progress and moved him to the "floor" late afternoon. We couldn't be happier, most don't move for a few days or longer due to junctional rhythm, or chest drainage. But so far things are moving according to plan.

Tomorrow's goal will be to see if we can get him moving around a bit.