Thursday was a pretty good day for Joshua. Right now, Te doctors have a few goals for him each day: (1) continue getting rid of fluid and hopefully become less swollen, (2) get the fluid off the lungs and work towards getting off the ventilator. (3) keep his intestines from getting worse.

So, lets just go through each goal. He is doing really well with getting rid o fluid. On Thursday, he was negative 140 cc...meaning they minus what they put into him, he got rid of a total of 140 cc. It was not as much as the day before, but as long as he is negative, we are heading in the right direction. It is a very slow process, but we are all about baby steps right now!

Ok...the lungs. Honestly, his lungs are the biggest concern right now. His right lung has a lot of fluid in it, which is really affecting his ventilation. Through the last few days, they have been suctioning out quite a bit of mucus (I know...it's gross, sorry!). They so have him on a ventilator (his breathing tube) so they can make sure he is getting what he needs. They did have I change him to pressure control instead of volume control to be more safe (look it up...it is pretty fascinating what they can do!). So, we are working towards getting back to volume control and having him do more and more of the work in the breathing department. I am guessing it will be a few more days before we see any huge changes, but we are once again looking at the baby steps.

Finally, his intestines. We have been very encouraged that his x rays have been looking really good for the past few days. They decreased the number of x rays to every 12 hours instead of every 6. They have still been giving him the antibiotics and the general surgeons come in every few hours to do an exam. I am hoping we are past the worse scare for any serious problems, but it is always on our minds because it is so serious. Just keeping an eye on everything!!

Another thing that happened was his arterial line stopped working. This is one of the many lines Joshua has going into some vein or artery. This was one in his hand that was in an artery. They use this o measure his blood pressure continuously and also I draw blood for certain labs.

Now, putting in an arterial line is quite the process. It is a sterile procedure, so they have to get out he gowns and have someone their to assist to ensure it stays sterile. They bring in an ultrasound machine and use that to did the artery and make sure the line is in the artery instead of the vein.

The attending doctor and fellow decided to try putting a new one in his leg, but Joshua's arteries were so small, they were not able to do it (and they tried for about an hour!!). Finally, they called the surgeon to come do it and they were able to fix the one in his hand. So, after about a total of 2 and a half hours, Joshua had his original arterial line back.

So, we move on to the next day. Like I said, we are hoping for baby steps forward. Even though Joshua is progressing slowly, we are just grateful he is not moving backward. Please keep him in your prayers!!