Back again...

Good Morning Connor,

Its been a rough thirty-six hours for you big boy. You almost made it through Gigi's visit with nothing but good days and better days, almost. But just as soon as daddy finished writing your note the other night you started to fuss a little bit. I put away the laptop, put on my jacket, started to kiss you good night when all of a sudden you were upset in a big way. Luckily for us Gigi had found your new pacifiers and that calmed you down pretty quickly. We all could breathe easy again. Then Gigi walked over to kiss you goodbye and you started to fuss again. This went on for about half an hour until you finally let loose and went into a full fit. That's really when the trouble started.

You had one of your favorite nurses that night and thankfully she was able to stay calm and think clearly because after almost an hour of you going back and forth between a calm and happy sleeping baby and a full blown "hot mess" (as mommy likes to say) mommy, daddy, and Gigi couldn't think straight. We started to get worried about you because you didn't look good, your color was off and your breathing seemed awfully labored. It was at that point that your labored breathing and fussing started causing your oxygen levels to drop, and drop quick. You didn't go into a crash or anything but you dropped to the sixties and seventies and no matter what we did with your sensor the numbers weren't coming up.

That is when your nurse's level head saved the day. We were all trying to calm you, assuming that you would look worse or turn blue if your oxygen was really that low. Your color wasn't good but it wasn't that bad either. Lather, rinse, repeat, we have done this a thousand times. But your nurse knew something was wrong, something was different. She ordered a blood gas for you and when the numbers came back people started moving fast. You may not remember this, but your aunt Alisa once told your daddy that in a hospital you don't ever have to worry until people start to move fast. Crap.

Turns out your CO2 levels were the highest they have ever been and your other numbers (most of those I don't understand completely) were way off as well. As soon as mommy heard them she was worried too, but the nurses and the respiratory therapists were already in action. The doctors had been called. Now it was time start panicking. Even Gigi's face, which I have seen stay calm in some of the most intense situations,  started to show some concern. Not again, not now. Mommy and I were worried that breathing tube was going back in.

Dr. Ilias was on the case though, he got your high flow pushed back up and your oxygen turned to one hundred percent. He ordered some more medicine for you and he promised mommy and daddy that he would do everything he could to keep you from moving too far backwards. Too far, we were holding on to that idea because it was clear you were going backwards, again. So we held on, with your Gigi right there with us, and hoped that Dr. Ilias could keep you on your high flow. It was a really tense forty-five minutes or so until you finally settled in and your breathing slowed down.

During that time the doctors took an x-ray of your lungs, they just wanted to make sure that you didn't have anything in there. The good news was that you didn't have anything in there. The bad news was that you almost completely collapsed your left lung, again. So the respiratory therapists went to work on you and started doing your chest percussion therapy and suctioning to see if they could get your lung to open back up without us having to put the tube back in and bronch you again. Thankfully you have some great nurses and doctors and respiratory therapists because they got your lung back and finally, after about three hours, you were calm and sleeping. Granted it was with the assistance of some serious drugs but serious times call for serious measures.

That was just Wednesday night. Maybe when I have caught up on some sleep and have a little more energy I will fill you in on yesterday but for now you are stable again. You are back on super-high high-flow and you are no longer getting any milkshakes but you are stable. So sleep and rest and maybe we can make another run at the mountain next week.

Mommy and Daddy love you Connor.

- Daddy