Baby Steps In The Right Direction!

Carter had a wonderful night's sleep last night (even better than he had been sleeping at home)! There was a little hiccup in the middle of the night when his IV stopped working, but other than that, he caught many quality zzzz's.

He was moved out of the PICU yesterday!! He is currently on Oxygen, but they are hoping to take him off by tomorrow. His oxygen levels have improved but still need a little TLC. Carter is receiving respiratory therapy by way of a "Cough Assist" machine that pounds on his chest to make him cough, while wearing a mask that helps to bring up the "junk" and clear his airways. The chest XRays came back showing no signs of pneumonia, but just a little bit hazy from the congestion.

The Neupogen did the trick and brought his white blood cell count back to levels that are even ABOVE what they wanted to see in a week!! These are the cells that will help fight the bacterial infection. His platelets and red blood cells are both stable.

Before this whole roller coaster began, CarterMan weighed 68 lbs. He recently weighed in at 57 lbs. He has now gained 4 lbs back! I only wish people were as excited when I gained 4 lbs!! Due to how weak he is at the moment, the weighing process goes a little something like this... The nurse weighs "Daddy" (Skip) and then Daddy picks CarterMan up, then the nurse weighs Daddy again. Unfortunately, during one of these transitions, someone stepped on Carter's PICC line and pulled it out. It is considered a minor surgical procedure to reinsert it. Typically, anyone under the age of 10 is sedated for this process. Well, being the stellar patient that Carter has been, he allowed them to do the procedure this afternoon while fully awake!

The physical therapist was happy to see Carter moving cooperatively yesterday and was looking forward to working with him again today. Even though he has been experiencing major anxiety through all of this, he has been extremely cooperative with any and all medical personnel.

Courtney and Skip have been surrounded by family/friends in the waiting area through this entire stay in the hospital. Carter will not be discharged until Monday (at the earliest). We wish him a speedy recovery from these setbacks and look forward to seeing him regain his strength a little bit more each day!