A Whole New Cowboy

November 9, and 10, Owen was having rough days and even worse nights. Gayle and I even had the ole respite care or hospital talk. The weekend before we had had a fast for Owen as to what to do. The day we fasted Gayle took the kids to church and I stayed home, I was looking over the ventilator and a thought went through my mind as to the tidal volume. I turned him up 5 and then got scared and turned him back down. Finally on the eleventh, Gayle called me on my way home from work and wondered if we needed to go to a doctors office. We loaded Owen and headed to Dr. Depalmas' office. All along Gayle was emailing Dr. Murphy, before we left Dr. Murphy called and said that she couldn't type fast enough and to get Owen to Depalma. Owen had a sinus infection and two ear infections, and was so badly under ventilated that he was starting pneumonia. We were looking over the normal baby stuff. Gayle and I were both sick! Poor Owen had been trying to get air from a machine that wasn't given it to him. I am still sick typing about it today! We went over to the hospital to get some blood tests run and what a JOKE! After thirty minutes of milking four viles of blood from a heel prick, I took the honor of getting the blood gas test. So add one more qualification to my growing list, but one can only sit around for so long with a room full of stupidity before something has to change. On our way home Depalma called and demanded that we return to the hospital because his blood gas was horrible, we explained the circumstances and she lightened up. Owen is still recuperating and I think he might be getting another cold along with the family. His tidal volume is 35 mL more than it was two weeks ago and I am still training on the ole vent. It is amazing the change in him with more pressure, his oxygen has dropped from around 2 liters to .25 liters and sometimes on room air. He is a whole new cowboy!