The Norman Nest

Family and Friends, There are a few updates on Nathan, which you will find in bullet points below.  A little further down I have shared some more personal thoughts for those who have been asking and want to know.  Thank you so much for your continued service, support and prayers for us.  To say thank you again and again on a blog seems so shallow but please know we mean it deeply. Nathan's Updates: * Nathan is breathing on room air - no oxygen support! * Nathan is finally experiencing less pain and seems to be weening well from the drugs... finally! * Nathan will have a sleep study tonight (Wed.) and then should be release from the PICU after 23 days and send to a normal floor * Towards the end of this week and early next week Nathan will have a few digestion tests done to try help us decipher if his digestion troubles have anything to do why he aspirated.  Our prayer is for clarity and unity in all these tests to help the us know how we can best proc...

We wanted to give a quick update on Nathan.  Today is his 16th day in the PICU and he is almost almost completely off of oxygen support!  Hopefully, he will be flying on his own at some point tomorrow!  We are really thankful that he continues to get stronger! His pain was still pretty high during various points of the day.  Narcotics do a number on a little body...  After a lot of work, we finally got him to a place where he was able to sleep for a few hours (pictured above.)  The Iphone doubles as a great paci holder and great white noise machine! The plan is still pretty much the same as we mentioned in our last post...  The primary focus is getting Nathan completely on his own for breathing, getting him off of the drugs and then some tests for digestion.  He really needs to be almost, if not completely off of drugs for the tests to be considered valid so that we know we are getting a clear picture of what is happening....

We are thankful to be able to share some good news!  On Thursday afternoon, Nathan was taken off the ventilator!  We were very surprised as he had bombed a trial run early in the morning (and when I say early, I mean early like 4:15am early...  please don't judge the bags under our eyes) but he was doing much better in the afternoon so the doctors decided to go for it!  He is still getting some extra oxygen support through the face shield (seen in the pic above.)  Our arms and heart were full of thanks when we finally got to hold him after 9 days, even if only for a little while! The short term goals for him are to continue to be able to cough up the fluid that is still in his lungs .  He still has a fairly decent amount in there but the hope is that as his little body keeps getting stronger he is able to keep getting it out by himself.  The other important thing at the moment is his being weened from the narcotics he has been on for 11 days now. ...

Family and Friends, Thanks for your continued prayers and care for Nathan.  Here is the update of the day: Medically: He has actually had some not-so-great days since the last update.  He is now getting a little more oxygen help and the ventilator is doing all of his breathing for him.  It has been tricky to find the right balance of meds to keep him sedated well enough without totally taking away all of his wanting to breathe on his own...  The doctors are now treating him for a reactive airway disease (like Asthma, etc.)  While they are still unsure as to what the culprit is that made his respiratory system go haywire (doesn't seem to have been a virus, could have been that fluid got into his lungs when he threw up last Monday) the bottom line is that his system responded really strongly.  His lungs are being suctioned every hour and there still seems to be a lot of fluid there...  he is now on antibiotics to help treat a bacterial infect...

Thank you all for your continued prayers.  We have been cared for really well - friends bringing dinner and Maddie to the hospital to see us, letting her spend the night in their homes, our small group visitng us, a friend picking up Jonny's mom from the airport...  It's a truly humbling thing when people's responses to help and pray are even greater than our need. Nathan was more stable last night, so Jonny went home for a good night of sleep and was able to get some time with Madison this morning.  A good thing for a girl who hasn't seen her parents for 48 hours! :)  As of today, Nathan's Xrays look pretty similar to yesterday which they are hoping means that whatever kind of unnamed viral infection he has is peaking and that his lungs will start to improve soon.  His oxygen has been down from 60-30% and he is breathing past what the venilator has him doing.  So, they are going to back him off, ever so slightly, and see how he does.  The hope, o...

Well, after staying out of the hospital for the whole month of January, we are back. Monday night Nathan threw up several times and throughout that night and Tuesday his breathing became more and more labored and the intensity of his pain kept increasing.  Last night (Tuesday) we brought him down to Children's and it's a good thing we did.  He was admitted to the PICU (Pediatric Intensive Care Unit).  It has been a very rough last 18 hours for our little man.  It took 11 attempts to get an IV in.  He is now on a ventilator and is at 60% oxygen.  His pain was really high all night and he (we) only slept for about 30 minutes.  They have put a PICC line in, which is a more permanent IV, since they are anticipating his being here for a while. As of right now the leading theory is that he has a viral respiratory infection, probably bronchiolitis and maybe some other things as well.  They are still playing with a lot of things, gathering data etc. tryin...