Deja Vu...

Well, last night at around 8pm, we had a repeat of the events of 2 weeks ago. The nurse called us at home to tell us that we needed to come in; Charlie was having an emergency and his heart rate was crashing again. The first time this happened (see a few posts ago), we were almost certain we were driving to the hospital to say goodbye to Charlie. This time around it was a stranger mix of emotions, because you think they wouldn't tell us to come in unless the situation was dire, but on the other hand we'd been through this once before and seen Charlie survive. Luckily the latter held true again and they were able to bring Charlie back. Same problem as last time: he had another puncture in his lung and the air had built up in his chest cavity and put pressure on his lungs and heart. A chest tube on the right side immediately released the air and allowed Charlie to stat back up.

I haven't posted in the last few days because while Charlie has been making progress, it has been very slow progress and there have really been no new developments with him otherwise. Because the progress had been so little, the events of last night have definitely set Charlie back to where he was the last time this happened. Essentially, Charlie has lost most, if not all, of the healing that he occurred since his last lung collapse. He had been taken off the paralytic, which would not make the lungs weaker, but could have contributed to the collapse. Regardless, Charlie was not going to be able to stay on the paralytic forever, so it is not to say that the doctors made a mistake by taking him off.

Despite what happened, the doctors have chosen to leave him off of the paralytic and just control his movement and pain with Morphine and Versed (both of which he was already receiving). Besides giving Charlie the ability to move a bit and work his muscles and the resot of his body, being off the paralytic makes it able for the doctors to attempt feedings with Charlie. So, today (probably as I write this) they are attempting Charlie's first feeding. He will be getting 1 ml of breast milk every 12 hours via a feeding tube inserted through the mouth and will be monitored to make sure he is digesting it.

So, we're back to square one on waiting for Charlie's lungs to heal back up. Maybe if his feedings go well, the added nutrition will make him heal faster and more completely. However, we've again reached a pretty bad scenario in which Charlie's lungs are not only weak and over-inflated on the left side, but now have been injured yet again with another air leak.

Beyond the obvious emotions, this is also immensely frustrating for Shannon and me, and I may not be posting again for a little while. It's starting to seem sort of futile making these posts and trying to look for some glimmer of hope to relay. That said, I do hope that I will be posting some good news very soon. And again, I want to thank everyone for their prayers and support.