We Love Our Tan Puffball

Greg and I spent most of the day and night here at the hospital with Benjamin. I slept on a pull out cot amidst all his numerous alarms, and Greg got to sleep in the family lounge amidst all the cell phone conversations . . . neither of us slept that well as you can imagine! But, Benjamin had a stable evening. He is definitely making more urine, averaging around 10 ml/hour. They now have him on a scheduled IV diuretic (Bumex) which really seems to be helping with his urine output. Everytime I look at his catheter bag he's got more pee! His Xray this am did show a slight increase in the pulmonary edema (a little more fluid in his lungs), so they are going to limit his total IV fluids.

His labs this am show that his liver enzyme levels have improved (AST & ALT both decreased from the 400's to the 150's). His bilirubin level remains elevated, hence his nice tan. BUN has also slightly dereased (60-53), but his creatinine remains high at 2.3. From my recollection of ATN, the lab values lag behind the clinical improvement of increased urine output, so I do not think that it is surprising that it hasn't improved yet.

I think he looks better - less swollen and less jaundiced. See what you think by the photos. I also included a picture of some of his pumps, and his ventilator, so that you can see everything that he has going right now. He currently is intubated; that is the bigger tube in his mouth. He has an NG in his nose for feeding. The monitor on his forehead measures O2 levels in his brain. He has another one on his back for his kidney. He continues to have the two PICC lines in his arms, only one of them being centrally placed. He also now has an arterial line for blood draws and monitoing - this is in his femoral artery (groin). Last, but not least to poor Ben, is the foley catheter . . . OUCH!

They do also plan on restarting his feeds today, again at a very slow rate, as they do not feel that any of his new problems are related to his bowels. Maybe he'll start pooping again. It's weird not to be changing any diapers!