Good News!

Jimmie is really fighting! Go Jimmie go! Extubation went smoothly- thank God. Rachael, Mom, Dad and I were all there at the hospital with Jimmie. Rod came shortly after. Kathy will go by after work. Justin is working for the first time since Monday.

They have Jimmie in an oxygen hood. This is asking a lot of him because there is no positive air pressure in his nose at all. He was having some serious desats and bradys for a while. They were having to keep up almost constant stimulation to keep him close to acceptable levels. Jimmie always receives caffeine when he eats. They decided to bump up his dose to help stimulate him. He was just forgetting to breathe or taking shallow breaths. That seems to have helped quite a bit. He is much more stable at the last update. He also received a breathing treatment as his lungs were "pretty stiff" in the doctors words.

Below are pictures we took today right after extubation. Jimmie in his oxygen hood.




So overall this is extremely good news. It's hard to tell now if he is still bleeding. The last few times they suctioned his vent tube they either got "next to nothing" or "brown blood". They have carefully suctioned his throat and mouth once that I know of and there was no blood. Thank you Jesus! We are very relieved and excited today.

Please pray that Jimmie can continue to handle the oxygen hood, that he breathes deeply and regularly and that his lungs completely heal from the effects of aspirating. And most of all that this bleed is over and NEVER COMES BACK!

Hopefully we are on the road to healing from this terrible week. We are all still having "post traumatic stress" from Monday. Each of us are reliving it, but hopefully working through it. For a while on Monday it was not clear whether or not we were losing Jimmie. There are just not words for how that felt. Justin told his Mom he just didn't know if his little boy was going to make it. Rachael didn't sleep or eat much until Tuesday night. By Tuesday when the Doctor started suspecting it was not a pulmonary bleed we were much more encouraged for Jimmie's outcome. And by Wednesday when we realized he was not sick that was another boost. We are very very thankful to God to have come to today and little Jimmie is breathing on his own again without much bleeding.

Pray for us to rest in peace and continue expecting only good things for Jimmie. Since this whole thing started at about "a month" into the situation just as we have really started settling in and feeling comfortable things have suddenly turned. In fact both times I have let my cell phone run out of batteries while I've been teaching I've been told by someone your Mom is trying to get a hold of you. The first time was the day Rachael went into labor. And then Monday- my phone was low on batteries and I just let it run out. I was told to call my Mom and received the- "Jimmie is bleeding into his lungs and they are working over him" news.

We are extremely thankful this wasn't worse. As bad as it was- it could have been much worse. We have been warned that the NICU journey with a micro-preemie can be a roller coaster ride. We know we have been extremely fortunate so far. But to be totally honest we are all so exhausted. Deeply deeply exhausted.(The year leading in to this one was pretty hard on our whole family for numerous reasons) God is so faithful and we continue to have strong faith for Jimmie. Please pray for us to keep up the strength!

Below are pictures Rachael took before Monday.





Jimmie- we are so very proud of you! You have been so brave and strong through this.

Love,
Amber
P.S. Notice how pink he is in the picture from today and how pale he was before the transfusion Monday. It's been hard because a lot of us "family doctors" still feel the transfusion was a factor in all this, but we do understand he needed it. Lets just pray he keeps his hematocrit up from now on!