It is amazing how one great NICU nurse can make all the difference in our lives right now! I told John that some seem like they could sit and talk to you all day about our son's condition and issues. Others...well, they make you feel like you are taking up way too much of their time when you ask a question or two. Thankfully, today's nurse is amazing and after the last couple of days, it is a welcome change. Caleb seems to be doing better today when it comes to oxygen need. He was down to 3 liters when we went to visit him today, set in the 30s. Hopefully he can get down to 2 liters again soon, as it is then that the bottle feedings will be able to resume. The cardiologist actually told this nurse that it does not do Caleb much good to get such high amounts of oxygen. One of his heart conditions is such that it is not a matter of oxygen vs. the amount of blood flow going between his heart and lungs. That is the "tetralogy of fallot" piece where his pulmonary (lung) artery is smaller then it should be so the amount of blood flow between heart and lungs is limited. So he has these "tet spells" where his stats drop like crazy and he needs something other then major amounts of oxygen. Yes, the oxygen is important, but the best thing to pull him out of one of these tet spells is various things to increase his blood flow. Nurse had a couple things she could try if he had any of these serious spells, but thankfully so far, he has not had any today.
**Just heard from cardiologist who was waiting to meet with cardiac surgeon today...they have both agreed that Caleb needs to go ahead and have the shunt placed in his pulmonary artery to provide better blood flow. He will probably have this surgery done next Tues. or Wed. Ugh...the wait is not going to be fun. It would have been SO much nicer to get it over with in the next couple days. :( But with surgeons...Fridays and Mondays are quite busy...so we wait!
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