Finally beginning to be on the mend.

Today Ian was finally in a good mood again for at least half the day. His full cheeky smile was back and bright as ever. Although nurses and doctors have said for the last few days that he looks better, I've not agreed with them until today. He's still working very hard to breathe but not as hard as he was. He's down to 10 liters of hi-flow at 30% oxygen, satting an average of 96 which is okay.

Dr. I said it was okay to feed him thick cereal today, full feeds. So I did and mixed it with fruits and veggies. He was a happy boy to be eating again! He still misses his bottle of formula but not as much. They are worried about aspiration and reflux which I guess is not as high of odds with thick cereal. We've still got days to go until we're out. When he's better they will keep him for another 2 days to do a swallow study and a 24 hour reflux test to see if that's an issue as they expect.

I had a meeting yesterday with another doctor in the 200 building. A Dr. Rachelesky, who is an amazing man. He has practiced for over 35 years and is now teaching and consulting. I just keep feeling like I need to do more for Ian, get more opinions, have more eyes and brains on him. So I met with Dr. R and he feels I should go for an opinion from Dr. Platzger at Children's Hospital. This doctor is one who has also been referred to me by quite a few people in the past. A good friend of mine takes her daughter to him and has been really happy with his care.

The doctors here are wonderful, very caring, very hands on and just really good people. But their experience is not that of 35 years or so. Ian is such a complex boy, I want to get an opinion from someone who has probably seen all of his issues 100 times over. It very well could be he'd do the same things they do here, we'll see. I'm very interested in just hear a different perspective.

We are still not getting sleep. I'm hoping tonight will be better. Last night the nurse and the care partner were so wonderful about it. They agreed not to do midnight vitals as long as he didn't have a fever. But he woke up anyway! Probably from the RT who has to come in every 3 hours. He was up from 2:30-3:00 then again from 4:00-6:15! And of course I'm having trouble sleeping in between times. You'd think because of sheer exhaustion I'd be out before my head hit the pillow but it's the opposite. I'm like a baby that is over tired, just tossing and turning and wanting to just whaaa ;-)

At least the lack of sleep will now be balanced with a less anxiety filled day. As long as Ian can keep his spirits up and get those lungs healed, I'm good. He's so much fun to hang out with when he's his sweet self. Even if we have to deal with the junky hospital stuff, like making him a little milkshake 4 times a day with his vibrating vest therapy, and suctioning his little snotty nose, and, and, and.

I know I'll miss him the moment I get on the 405 towards home but I am definitely counting the moments until Mike relieves me on Friday. Although I did have a few hour break yesterday to attend my forum meeting, (my Mother-in-law and Sister-in-law graciously accepted the task of hanging out with Ian) I'm ready to have a night of rest to recoup!