Beginning Week 5

Yesterday and today have been good days for Torrey.
He has the feeding tube removed from his nose, and can now process the nourishment through his stomach (via a tube through his mouth). His stomach has had some pain at the end of the feedings, but a low-does pain reliever seems to do the trick (w/o knocking him out for two days!).

He has failed his breathing trials (technically he's passed, but it has been borderline, so they don't want to take chances). I have noticed he gets better and better each time, though, so I hope it is a matter of days now before he can breathe on his own.

He has been extremely alert the last few days. I do notice that he is forgetful, and sometimes he is a bit 'out of it', but I am told this is normal and can go on for a while.

He indicated today that he feels really good - that he doesn't feel like he is critically ill.
The doctors are actually in awe of the fact that he is so alert, despite having such a huge issue with his blood pressure.

Speaking of blood pressure, we haven't made much progress in that arena. His blood pressure drops no matter what happens in a day - dialysis, sleeping, etc.; it just drops at the drop of a hat for no reason, so they have to keep him on the levofed at high levels.

I figure we'll concentrate on the breathing first, blood pressure next, and then kick the physical therapy into high gear, and hope that his liver starts working in the meantime.

The other good news (can't recall if I mentioned this in an earlier post), but the bleeding in his lungs has stopped. His chest x-rays continue to look better each day.

Tomorrow he is getting two somewhat invasive procedures - a tunnel catheter near his neck for dialysis (less prone to infection and more permanent); and a 'med catheter', also near his neck, in place of a pic line. Fingers crossed these both go well.

Hoping you all are staying cool this weekend,
Monica