August 13, 2009

Today Super Gabe was looking much better. He is slowly losing that fluid that accumulated so very quickly. We are beginning to see his little features again and it gives us more hope. His oxygen demands have gone down and his oscillator pressure is down as well. We are very excited to see our little man beginning to improve. We noticed that his lips are getting smaller and his eyelids don't seem as puffy. Tonight he was chewing on the breathing tube and seemed to enjoy this very much. Gabe also opened his eyes for the first time in about five days, which made our day. He looked right at us, unfortunately only his left eye could open since his right eye was still too puffy. Poor little guy looked like a pee wee pirate. He looked at mom and dad for about a minute and then you could tell he was tired of trying to keep his eye open, then closed it. Nurse "L" did a great job today taking care of little man and we look forward to her retuning from her trip and showing her how much weight Gabe's going to lose.
Tonight Doctor "J" said he is happy with how much fluid Gabe is getting off, but thinks it should be coming off a little faster. Gabe has put out about 850 cc out of his right chest tube in about three days, which is amazing. Since Gabe is still getting the high volume FFP (Fresh Frozen Plasma), Doctor "J" would like to change this to the Albumen. This would give us a little more bang with a lot less volume. Then he would like to add another diuretic on top of the Lasix, this will hopefully increase his urine output and get him skinnier, faster. Luckily his blood pressure is doing great, which will hopefully allow us to try this plan. Doctor "J" said he would like to get Gabe de-puffed as quickly as possible so that we may get him down to the operating room sooner than later, so that we may biopsy the liver. He thinks that the liver may hold the key to what is going on with Gabe and why he continues to have these setbacks. So tomorrow he will speak with the rest of the team and see what they think. I have the utmost faith in all the wonderful doctors at LCPH and know they are doing the very best for him.
Please continue to say prayers for Gabe and we will update you tomorrow with what they say.