The never ending marathon...

Wow, who would have ever imagined that a newborn could handle an MRI without any anesthesia?! Well, Caleb did!! :) We got a call this morning to approve the procedure and the anesthesia being used, and I did ask the anesthesiologist about using as little as possible. He is a very sleepy boy and I figured he would sleep right through the thing, so I asked him to use as little as possible. I have no idea how the stuff works, I probably cracked the guy up with my silly request, but somehow, someway, Caleb did not need any anesthesia to get through the MRI. And, of course, the MRI was inconclusive again. Apparently it showed some areas where they could tell there was not a problem, yet there were a couple other areas that made them wonder if it was 'suspicious' for tethered cord. In the end, the pediatric resident doctor told me that he does not display any of the symptoms of tethered cord, so we just need to monitor this situation with our pediatrician. Hopefully it will not turn into a more serious situation once he gets older and bigger.

The surgeon is fine with Caleb's incision and it is not what is now keeping him at the hospital. Now it is back to the cardiologist because Caleb's oxygen numbers were running high this morning/today, so they have changed the dosage of his medicine. With that, we get to wait another 24-48 hours to see how he responds to this change in medication. Yes, it sounds funny that his oxygen numbers are actually too high, but that is an indication that his heart is working too hard and too much blood is now going into the lungs. The medicine is for profusion. It is helping his blood profuse to his extremities rather then all go into his lungs. Just a side effect to having the BT shunt in there to help get blood flow to this lungs. It is a little big for his size, but something he will grow in to, then he hopefully will not need any of these medicines over time, as he grows in to the shunt.

We are hoping that Caleb can be released before the weekend. Everything at the hospital tends to come to a halt over the weekends as all the specialists and 'real' doctors are not there. So if we do not get him out of there on Friday, I have a feeling we will have to wait until Monday! :( Please pray with us that this medicine change does the trick and we can get him home on Friday at the latest!!

Thanks so much,
Joanna