Room Air!

Caelin is finally breathing 100% on his own since the first time after surgery! :D No ventilator, no cannula- just Caelin. We are so proud of the progress he is making and the obstacles he has overcome!

In addition to having the cannula removed, he has conquered a couple more baby steps. His Fentanyl (pain medication) is now on 1 from 1.5. His TPN was lowered from 10 to 8 because his feeds have increased to 8 mL/hour and will go up to 10 mL by midnight. He has also went from rectal aspirin to crushed aspirin in his milk (this is probably his favorite part of today's rounds with the doctors).

The speech pathologist came by again today and of course Cael was sleeping, again. But today he was at least a bit more cooperative and showed her that he has a strong latch and suck on his binky. She gave Mommy permission to try to give Cael a "taste trial" with 1 mL of milk later on when he was more awake. Mommy did this, and Caelin did well. He seemed to like the taste and did not try to pull away from it as she slowly dropped milk in his mouth as he was sucking on his binky- the speech pathologist warned that pulling away happens often with infants like Cael right as they're beginning to feed. So tomorrow she is going to stop by again and we are going to see if he can continue to make a little more progress with oral feeding!

Over the past couple days his breathing has become a little raspy accompanied with a high-pitched wheeze. The doctors, respiratory therapist, and nurse practitioner are going to watch it over the next couple of days to see if it dissipates and/or try to diagnose it. They think it could be attributed to trauma from being intubated, partial paralysis of the voice box from surgery, or Tracheomalacia. If his breathing does not get better, they will have the ENT (Ear, Nose, and Throat Specialist) come do a scope with a camera to check out the area next week.

Because of the noises he is making while breathing, the doctors are concerned with him beginning oral feeds. Apparently one of the possible causes could be that his larynx does not close completely which makes the high-pitched wheeze. If this is the case, they have to be careful with feeding because it could cause aspiration. If too much breast milk goes into his larynx and lower respiratory tract ("Going down the wrong tube") it could be very dangerous. So as we are practicing feeding, he has to be on his right side to help prevent any milk from traveling down his larynx.