Progress!

Jacob had a pretty good weekend when all was said and done.  Friday he showed some collapse of his right lung, so they worked hard to open it up and by Sunday morning it looked much better.  His left lung had a lot of fluid on it however, so they decided to put a chest tube in to drain the fluid off.  They got 60 ccs of fluid initially (2 ounces).  If you can imagine that much fluid in a little baby's chest, you know he is breathing much better!

Today he is off of all breathing support, breathing great 100% on his own!  The new concern is that he may have chylothorax, which is a fluid that leaks around the lungs and is a somewhat common side effect of cardiac surgery.  Hopefully his lymphatic system will seal itself off and he can stay the course and get the chest tube out in the next day or so, but if not, he will have to go to a special formula to help control the output of the chyle and it should be controlled fine by that.  If that is the case, he'll be on the formula for 4-6 weeks and then can transition back to fortified breast milk.

Another big change will be that we'll be moving in the next day or so to the progressive care unit where Mom and I will be doing more and more of his care so that we'll be ready for the transition home.

Overall, he is doing well, and moving in the right direction.  Hopefully we are over the breathing hurdle now and will get this chest tube out in the next day or two.