Breathing Free!!

Today is Liam's eight-week birthday. To celebrate, Liam was taken off of the ventilator at 10:45 this morning. All of the numbers the nurses and doctors monitor after extubation look good, and he has settled in for well deserved nap.

Liam also has far less tubing hooked up to him now. While it may look like alot, it is alot less than when he first got to the CICU. Most of the wires visible in the photo (around Liam's back) are hooked up to vital sign monitors. The line with the two red caps runs directly into the right atrium of his heart and allows medication to be given directly to the source for circulation throughout the body. Instead of running six or seven meds through this line as they did when he arrived in the CICU, he is now only on two and at minimal doses. The last two lines are an oxygen tube to provide him with a little help in breathing and a catheter to help him pee. Lauren and I think that the catheter is really so that the nurses don't have to change as many diapers.  His only pain medication at this time is a Tylenol suppository that is given...ah hem...well, we were just talking about diapers so you figure it out.

They even let us give him his pacifier before he drifted off to sleep which was finally a little taste of normalcy for all of us. Liam truly enjoyed this simple pleasure and it helped to soothe him significantly.

All in all, everyone thinks our little man is doing well. He's been quite a champ, and both Lauren and I are incredibly proud of all that our little Liam has overcome in his eight weeks with us which is far more than most people overcome in a lifetime. As you'll see below, Liam is wearing his mother out in the process!

Keep your fingers crossed that we keep progressing in the right direction! Next steps are the removal of the line in his femoral artery and the line into his heart. If he can get through those things, he'll be out of the CICU soon!