April 3, 2009

Hey there faithful Caden Marshall watchers. David here with a Friday update. As Melissa mentioned I had to run home to take care of some stuff (basement) that needs to be done before Caden comes home. I got back to CHW about 10PM last night to find Caden in a crib. I guess it is normal for the transition to the crib yet I liked the other open style better because you could just look at Caden unobstructed. On the flip side, the crib is a positive step forward and one step closer to the door of this place.

Caden Marshall had a pretty good day today probably taking, on average, half of his feeding volume orally. During their morning rounds the Doctor suggested to try and move his oxygen level back down to .2 which if he tolerates it would be a good positive move. We need to get him off the oxygen so the doctor has decided to reduce the level and mix in just regular air. We hope that works. His saturation levels seemed pretty good for the most part with just a couple of dips into the "worry zone".

Caden was really fussy (crying, turning red, agitated) at one point which scared us because we dont know how much is too much. Okay, it is really just me that gets nervous because I fear he is stressing his heart to much. I better get some good training for warning signs before we go home. You know how infants turn red and fuss when they are trying to dukie right? Well if I don't know the difference between the deuce and a problem, we are going to be making a lot of trips to the ER!! Bring on the instruction manual for HLHS kids please.

Melissa and I had a good day today as well. As you can see in the picture above we got to take Caden Marshall for a walk today. We were limited to the 4th floor ICU and 15 minutes however it was a pretty great 15 minutes. We walked in big circles talking about getting out of the hospital and taking Caden on walks to our favorite hiking spot in Cary. We imagined loading him up in the stroller and rolling him down to the park to put him in those little swings with the legs cut out. It was a great day of imagining the possibilities........... That little stroller thing they let us use was old, a bit beat up, and not the most aesthetically pleasing thing however we loved what it did for us. We felt so mobile, free, and actually a bit normal.

Thoughts and prayers. Keep them coming please.

Good night.

David and Melissa
xoox