12/28 - On the third and fourth days of Christmas, my true love gave to me...

3rd - a day of rest, and 4th - more baby steps toward recovery.

I know that you all have been waiting for the next blog entry as I watch the number of page views climb. After this post, I'm guessing we will surpass 100,000.  I cannot even wrap my brain around that number, but please know that we draw so much energy knowing that you are all watching Sam's progress as closely as we are. Someone mentioned to me that the blog was like crack, and they found themselves obsessively checking for updates.  Please check updates responsibly--no driving and blog-checking!!! I know you'll understand the delay was because I needed to mentally check out for a while and get some rest.  And yesterday, I did just that.  I got home, ate, downed some NyQuil and did not move for about 10 hours.  It was great. Thanks for waiting patiently. (Or for waiting impatiently and not telling me about it.) Although the cold is not all the way gone, I feel worlds better than I did yesterday.

As for today, baby step day, I wasn't here for most of it, but I did get updates from Jim.  Nothing huge happened, but there have been little improvements and other small challenges that occurred.  The big concern--Sam's kidneys--seems to be improving with the dialysis.  They started off more aggressively to get a lot of fluid off of him (which they did), and now they're backing off a little bit so they can see how he does.  He is definitely less Baymax-y, and he's really starting to look like himelf.  When the machine pulls his fluids to clean them, sometimes it pulls clots.  We have been assured repeatedly that this is normal. The problem is that with Sam being a "big" kid and the level of fluids being pulled, the clots would stop the machine and they'd have to change the filter.  They have made some adjustments, and with less volume being pulled, they think this will occur less frequently.  Additionally, his normal output has increased, which indicates the kidneys are still functioning, even if they're not at 100% yet.  They weighed him today, and he went from 90.2kg when he came in to 81.1kg now.  That's a lot, most of which we presume is fluid.  (Feel free to do the metric conversions on your own.)  This is a good thing.

***Right before I hit "publish", I got some excellent news. They are stopping the dialysis and letting his kidneys try to finish the job with Lasix because they are at a reasonably normal level of function! If that doesn't work, they will try hemodialysis (intermittent,) and if not, we can go back to the continuous. I'll keep you posted!

They're still not sure what's going on with the lungs.  There is not a ton of improvement if any, so they're not sure if it's fluid (not as likely now) an infection, or perhaps some damage from the accident or even some meds he received. He is on an antibiotic, and they will continue to stay on top of this until they find the culprit.  For right now, his lungs are functioning ok, although the respirator is doing the bulk of the work.

Other issues included his liver, his arterial line and his trach. The liver is functioning fine, but there are some numbers they are watching to make sure everything is ok. They finally got him a new arterial line after the 3rd try.  The boy clots like his dad, which we would have had no way of knowing until this happened. They will be replacing his trach tomorrow (standard procedure) and possibly looking into removing the C-collar barring any ligament damage. They'll be doing an MRI to evaluate that. Also, they did remove every other staple today from the initial surgery, and may be removing the rest tomorrow. More and more, he looks like our Sam.  

He has still been opening his eyes occasionally.  Most of the time he does that when they tick him off--suctioning, bathing, moving him.  Once the kidneys and other systems are in a better place, they will start trying to get him to respond to stimuli.  We are very anxious for that to start, and we continue to work on our patience.  We know these guys know what they're doing, and we're going to let them do their job, at which they are consummate professionals. 

You may be wondering how others I'd requested prayer for are doing. I was in touch with Donna, Kyle's mother.  He is doing better each day as well, and will hopefully be moved to rehab at week's end.  She did share with me the very sad news that Jimmy from Oklahoma who was in the room next to Sam at the previous hospital passed away this morning. My heart is hurting for his wife, Stacie, and his mom.  I would ask that you keep them in your prayers as well.

Thank you, #TeamSam for all of your prayers, kind thoughts, and offers of help.  We carry on in hope together, and our prayer for you as we head into the new year, is that God's peace and love surround you always.

School Picture this year