June 13, 2006

Today we had our first sit down meeting aka "family meeting" with the doctors, nurses, and social worker. The gist of the meeting was them explaining all the diffrent things they are doing to care for Aiden. His potassium level, ventilation, bleeding in the brain, blood pressure, etc...
I did not take this all too well.
He is on dangerous ground for so many issues accross the board that it is almost pointless to worry about one thing more then the other. However there are still certain things which are immediately life threatening. Potassium level for example. Normal is around 4 to 5. if it gets to 8 or 9, doctors get very worried. Aiden was at 7.6 at the time of the meeting. It spiked to 8.4 later in the day, but thankfully it looks to be coming down again. 8.1 and 7.6 in the last two tests..
Chuck and I are becoming experts at reading all the different sensors, read outs and alarms. It's almost comical to see us conversing with the staff, asking the same questions repeatatively. How's his potassium? How's his blood sugar? How's his breathing? What's his O2 percent at? Have they done a new ultra sound on his head? How's his skin? Etc...
From our non-professional view point, he actually looks to be doing pretty well. We are acutely aware that we are still in what they call the honeymoon period.
We on the other hand are just glad he is doing well today and that is all that matters to us. His color looks better, he is lighter and pinker, which means his bili levels are lower and the photo therapy is working and Aiden looks to be resting more comfy.