May 20 - Afternoon

15:53 -- Another day at the hospital has come and gone. I actually left Max' bedside early today, around 14:00, to put a dent in the laundry at home; well... that's what my intention was, but what has happened is that I sat on the bed and watched a Tivo'd Law & Order: SVU. And that's about it.

Anyway, I got to the hospital around 10:30. Max was resting peacefully. Nurse S. said his platelets were at 42K, so no need for a transfusion today. His blood gas looked "okay" meaning they weren't going to run another one until tonight. It seems his screwy numbers and increase in oxygen yesterday had to do with some pain he was experiencing, because as soon as they put him on Versed (sedative) this morning they were able to reduce his oxygen to 31% compared to yesterday's 49%. Dr. R. said they might have been too aggressive in trying to get him off the ventilator so they're going to scale their efforts back a bit while he steadies on the food.

As of this afternoon they're adding Enfacare to the breast milk to boost his caloric intake without increasing the milk volume. If he's able to digest the Enfacare over the next 3 feedings, they'll up the volume to 45ML every three hours. The good news is that there has been no residual from any of his feedings today! My mom came to the hospital today and we were comparing Max' size to the others in the NICU. He looks like a giant.

The bilirubin tests are now every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Yesterday's number was 19, whereas Friday it was 14. Dr. R. considers the 14 an "outlier" because when they took the sample Max was pumped so full of fluids the bilirubin was likely diluted. 19 is not bad -- it's still better than it was before the "14" reading.

Other than that, I spent most of my time watching him rest and chatting with Nurse S., with whom we've all become quite chummy. When I was still in the hospital, my OB/GYN said that while the doctors deal with Max' overall health and prognosis, the nurses were a far better source of information when it comes to the daily status of Max' progress. He was right. The nurses have been great and patient with my incessant questions (mainly because Phoo texts me his questions on top of my own): "What's his CO2, his bilirubin level, oxygen concentration, PIP/PEEP, blood pressure, heart rate, respiratory rate, weight, belly circumference?" "Any feeding residual?" "Is another echocardiogram scheduled?" "Did he poop today?" "Has he opened his eyes?" "Any new doctor orders?" And the list goes on and on....