Henry in the Hospital

It's Saturday. I am at the hospital to see Henry. My mum has Charlie and Aly is at her parents' to see her dad.

I wrote about Charlie yesterday so today is a Henry update. The doctor who examined  him is confident that he is getting better and that is a great relief to hear. He is still very sick but this is the first time in days that we have not been told that he is getting worse.

Henry went from nearly leaving the hospital to being on a ventilator in less than a week.
The support needed for his lungs has gone from nothing, to some oxygen through a nasal cannula to the high flow nasal cannula and, eventually, to the nuclear option, the ventilator. 

They stopped his feeds (so he is back on TPN with Omegaven), they moved him to an isolation room (a long way from the door, to extend that metaphor) and he had a terrible time getting the tube down his throat because his airway was swollen from the illness.

But they think he's getting better.

Part of the reason that the doctor feels he is getting better is that the settings on the ventilator that he needed yesterday are looking like they are too much support today. There are also some good signs in the test results.



(D)