Monday Morning (6-28)

Kade had a very good day yesterday. He was able to get rid of a few of the extra lines connected to his body. They removed the catheter that has been monitoring his kidney output. He now uses a diaper like most kids his age to go potty. The nurses still weigh the diaper after he is changed to get a accurate number on what his output is for the day. They were also able to remove a line from his left arm that was a real time measurement of what his blood pressure is. They are now only checking every hour with a arm cuff. It makes us a little nervous not to be able to see exactly what his blood pressure is. We have gotten to used to watching his numbers like a hawk on the monitor over the last 3 weeks. However, the nurses have told us that we only need to ask and they will be happy to check the old fashion way at any time we like. The last line that was removed was monitoring pressure in the bladder area.

While Kade continues to improve he also keeps everyone guessing here as well. He still has a fever that spikes every once and a while. The doctors have some concern that he may have another infection. Taking away the lines will help in the process, as any entry into the body can be an infection site. Today they plan to continue to wean him down on the ventilator with the hopes of getting him off it on Tuesday. Another big step today will be that Kade is getting a PIC-line. This will replace the the main access that he has in his femoral artery in the right leg. The PIC-line will be a more permanent access point for the medication, blood draws and any other test that they need to run. He won't have this line forever but it can stay in for very long periods of time without the higher probability of infection at the site of entry.

All the nurses and staff have been so nice. I think of them more as Angels watching over our little guy. We have really gotten to know them well and shared a lot of ups and downs with them. Quite a few of them have really become attached to our little guy and rumors of fighting for dibs on who gets to take care of him for the day or night have even reached us. One of Kade's angels said that helping assist to get Kade into his parents arms on Saturday is why she comes to work. She lives for those moments.

We pray that he stays on the road to recovery and continues to show signs of improvement.