The Pattern Continues

The good: It sounds like more air is moving through Jaisal's right lung. Today's xray will be very informative. Kirk and I getting pretty good at reading chest xrays at this point.

The bad: Jaisal has begun to experience morphine withdrawal. He is agitated and does not sleep for more than an hour at a time. Thus far we've been able to manage with one small booster shot of morphine and lots of singing. I am super appreciative that Jaisal is calmed by my tone deaf renditions of lullabies, pop songs, and christmas carols. I am sure my singing would and does cause agitation to all others.

Kirk and I are taking two to three hour shifts with Jaisal and alternating who sleeps. It feels fairly surreal to say, but I miss the luxury of 4 hour sleep intervals. Not only are we both exhausted, but I can see myself becoming dumber by the day. My short term memory seems to be virtually nonexistent.

As a partial solution, I have turned to caffeine. I managed to make it through college, 80-hour weeks as a consultant, law school, and law firm life without needing a daily dose of caffeine. I am now painfully aware of the weekday hours of the hospital coffee shop and the weekend hours of Starbucks. The money we've saved by not parking in the CMH garage (thanks Neeti!) and by not eating out (thanks mom, dad, Alpesh, Shaili, and generous donors to the Kohl's House), we're easily reallocating to our caffeine needs. At least it allows me to be awake at 4 am to write a blog post.

Goal for today: Jaisal sustains lung capacity even if we intermittently take him off the cpap.

Super ambitious goal: We take Jaisal for a walk around the PICU, either in our arms or in a stroller.