So far, so good… They say the CPAP will inflate his belly some, so they have to watch that to make sure it doesn’t aggravate his tummy drains, but he was breathing over his ventilator so they decided they would give it another try and see how he does.
Keeping our fingers crossed for this 3rd attempt.
Nathan doesn’t like his ventilator in so he’s keeping the nurses on their toes today. His vitals have been mostly stable except for some brief bradycardia‘s or temporary drops in his heart rate.
Today, Zayda (Russ’ Dad) & Granny (Russ’ step-mom), Mommy’s Grandma & Grandpa, and her four sisters, sister-in-law, and nephew all came into town for a very small funeral service to be held for Kaleb tomorrow at 1pm. Grandma (Russ’ mom), Shannon, Patty, Kim, Randy, Sara, Dana, Shawna, Gadget, Mike, Jere, Luke, & Seth were also there. We appreciate all the kind words and wish we could invite all our friends, but as we will have a lot of family and will be having it in the small garden outside the NICU, we’re somewhat limited on the number of people who can attend.
We cannot receive flowers in the NICU, so in lieu of flowers we’d instead prefer a donation be made to Graham’s Foundation, the Ronald McDonald House (which has been amazingly helpful throughout our stay at TCH), the Jewish Family Service of Houston, or through the Baby Registry page above.
Thank you everyone for all the kind words, prayers, and well wishes. We couldn’t have possibly made it through these tough times without all the support.
Hoping for a quiet night…
October 25, 2012 – November 8, 2012
We will always love you, son.
Aunt Jere, Teresa Biggs and Aimee Declaris visited today. It was great seeing them all!
Nathan’s getting his tummy drain saline rinsed twice per day for awhile to keep it cleaned out. Kaleb’s oxygen saturation has improved over the last hour after they flushed his lines out, so they’re holding off changing his ventilator out as long as his numbers are doing a little better.
Nathan’s Penrose drain install went well. He woke up afterwards and was looking around more than before, so he seems pretty alert. The drain is two small holes on each side of his belly with a tube passed through and tied on top to keep it in place. The tube is there only to keep the holes open so the waste can exit. This will be in place for a couple week to give his perforated intestines a chance to heal. There’s some risk that the healing will cause some narrowing due to scar tissue but they will look at that later after its healed.
Kaleb is still having some low oxygen saturation issues, they are talking about changing his oscillating ventilator back to the same one Nathan has in a while.
The Penrose drain is being inserted into Nathan’s tummy. Should be finished in about 30 minutes.
Nathan will not be getting the riskier surgery that was originally planned for him, but now they will be doing less invasive surgery that can be done without anesthesia which involves pulling his tummy tube all the way through to the other side so it can drain out both sides, and washing out anything that has accumulated in his abdomen. That procedure should be completed within a couple hours.
Kaleb’s oxygen saturation levels have been low for the past two days and they’re still trying to bring it back up to normal range to make sure his body is receiving enough oxygen throughout.
More surgeons came by and said they don’t feel Nathan’s condition is serious enough to require surgery (one surgeon did, the others don’t) so they’re going to hold off on surgery for now.
The Rimmerman Baby Adventure 
