The Final Countdown*

The time has been set. The long awaited first extubation attempt for Woody will be, barring any unfortunate changes, at 8 a.m. CDT on Friday, July 14. The timing was set by another good day (he's been averaging in the high 30s for FiO₂ again, and the desire to give him a day of the strong steroids before making the attempt. So he gets the steroids tomorrow and he gets the tube pulled Friday.

We are very excited about this, as one could imagine. Yes, there's a not insubstantial chance that he won't be able to support his own breathing, and the doctors are going to not give him too much threshold on any struggling, but we are very happy that he's at least strong enough to be able to be given the chance. He'll be placed first on a rated CPAP, which will provide pulsed air pressure directly into his nose to provide a little extra lung support. If that takes, he'll be placed on a regular CPAP, which is just a steady stream of air, and then to the nasal cannula as a last step before being taken off lung support altogether.

I'm so proud of him for doing so well. There have been at least three nights that I wasn't even sure he'd make it to morning, and now he's getting a voluntary extubation attempt. I just think he's so awesome.


*I've gone and given myself a horrible Europe earworm now. That damn synth line will reverberate in my head forever.