Another Hospital Stay, Another...

...dumping of snow!  And only me home to shovel it.  Thankfully it was light and fluffy snow this time and it fell on a Sunday (March 6).  After I got to the hospital and switched shifts with Clayton he went home with Lorelei and they had fun playing in the snow - even though it was not snowman weather.  (Lorelei was quick to point this out to me.  Although she informed me that because she could make snowballs she should have been able to build a snowman since they are just bigger snowballs.  No good argument for that kind of logic.)

Four days into Ethan's hospital stay, this is what he looked like.  (Can you tell I finally remembered to bring the camera?)  Still requiring lots of oxygen, he was so tired from working so hard to breathe that he willingly wore the oxygen mask in addition to the nasal prongs.  After the first couple days, they turned off the oxygen to the prongs but kept the mask on.

But the next day he was feeling better and we had to switch back to the nasal prongs and the mask became his blow-by.  That night we still had to use the oxygen mask because he was not able to keep his oxygenation high enough with just the nasal prongs and blow-by.  Clayton said it was a rough night because Ethan kept waking up and yelling about the mask.  Although he was awake for this photo Ethan was still sleeping a lot.

The following day Ethan was much more himself with longer waking periods.  He was happy to see me, smiling and reaching for me.  I was daydreaming and had my cup within range and turned around to see him reaching for it.  I just had to grab a photo!  He kept trying to put it to his mouth.  So cute!  And somewhat unexpected given he does not drink anything by mouth.  Each day he seems to get stronger despite still requiring lots of oxygen.  The mucus in his lungs has been breaking up so he sounds worse and needs more suctioning, but it is a good sign because he is able to move the mucus on his own.