Keep on truckin'

Woody continues to surprise us with his strength and resilience. He's not getting daily blood gases anymore, mainly because the doctors want to decrease the total number of sticks he's getting, so as to reduce stress, but his subjective measurements of his health continue to hold very strong. His oxygen needs on the cannula are beginning to inch down, too, which is really the last thing that was making any of the health care professionals nervous about his current setup. The main difference between the CPAP and the cannula has to do, of course, with the amount of pressure being blown up his nose. Kids with the chronic lung disease tend to have issues with collapse, on both a macro- and micro- level. Macro, in the sense that a section of lung or a whole lung could get collapsed and then the kid can't re-open it himself; micro, in that the tiny little sacs that hold the air and exchange the oxygen and CO₂ (the alveoli) can collapse, too. So they wanted to make sure that Woody had enough support, so that if he had a big yawn or a cough or something he'd be able to re-open his airway.

So, the upshot of that is that as they've okayed the cannula (which lowered his pressure support by more than half, functionally) it shows that we're less worried about these collapse issues. I have noticed, however, that he's beginning to figure out all the little tricks we do to keep our air moving. He's learned how to cough, he sneezes, he cries, and he clears his throat. I mentioned the joke about how we say that if he de-sats to shake him, but it's almost true in the sense that if he gets agitated, he tends to cough and keep his airways open himself.

Woody is now, by the way, over 3000 grams (he's up to 3130, I think), which translates to about 6 pounds 14 oz. He's huge! He's still on the growth charts, too; he's been running around the 50th percentile for weight, even though he's only in the 10th percentile for length. ...Which means that he's really chubby.

A final note-- our good friends Rob and Jen just had their baby, Harvey Michael, this morning. He's 8 lbs 3 oz., and I think he and Woody will have a great time playing together, as long as Harvey doesn't break him. I expect to see pictures showing up here soon.