On Tuesday morning, we were pleasantly surprised when Dr. Burch (our surgeon), was able to close Joshua's chest.  The procedure was done first thing in the morning (around 8am).  When he went in for the procedure, they were expecting to do three things: 1-clean out the chest cavity, 2- put in an abdominal catheter to help with drainage, 3- remove an arterial line that was no longer working right.

We didn't think they would be able to close the chest because he has been so swollen. However, when they put the catheter in, they were able to drain a TON of fluid and that allowed them to close the chest. This drain continues to help with the swelling a TON! We are grateful for that.

After the procedure, it was a pretty quiet day. All the way through today, we have just been waiting for the swelling to go down and his breathing to improve. The extra fluid in his body also affects how well he can breath on his own (hence the breathing tube). Hopefully in a few days, he will be able to get the breathing tube out.

Over the next few days, our goal really is to have Joshua keep his stats in a good place and keep draining as much fluid as possible. It has been slow progress so far, but we are encouraged that it will continue to improve. Hopefully he will also get off more and more of the medications. I feel that he is in a great place for only being a few days post op. We just keep telling Joshua to keep it up!!

A view of his room with the x-ray machine.  He was getting x-rays every 6 hours for a while.  Now they are doing them every 12 hours.

Check out that manly band-aid!  He is going to have a very manly scar to brag about someday :)

Opening his eyes!  He is starting to do this more often and he moves around a little, too!  Don't worry, they have him on some pretty awesome pain meds, so he doesn't feel any pain.  It was so good to see those bright eyes again!!