Monday

So far, today's been another pretty quiet day for Lewis. There's more going on around him, during the week, but he continues to rest pretty uneventfully. He's got a little bit of a rash on his face and his chest. The docs are pretty sure it is from one of the antibiotics but they aren't at all concerned. They suggested that they could give him benadryl, but that it would be more for us than for Lewis, since it doesn't seem to be bothering him. They expect to change the antibiotics today or tomorrow, in any case, so we're letting it be. The change in antibiotics will be based on the results of the cultures from his abcess. They know two things are growing in that culture - as soon as they're sure about both of them (one is strep) they'll tailor the antibiotics to those bacteria. (This is okay - we expected bacteria in these cultures, since we knew there was an infection)

Hopefully this will document the last time Lewis has a breathing tube...

The surgeon is happy with the way things are healing and they took the dressing off Lewis' scar today. It looks pretty good and it's healing well. It's big - about 8 cm (3 + inches) long. We took a couple off pictures, which are below. (Sorry for the quality - we used the NICU's camera, left ours home by accident).

Chicks dig scars...right?

Away from that, there was some talk about extubating Lewis today, but the docs decided against it. They can be much more proactive in managing his pain while he's intubated. As much as Lewis hates the breathing tube (he grabs at it whenever he can), we think leaving it in is the right decision right now. We'd prefer to be sure he isn't in pain, without the added risk of respiratory problems - at least for a day or two.

The next step is likely to be another barium survey, later this week (W or F). That'll tell us how well things are healing. If it goes okay, they'd remove the plastic drain tube near Lewis' stomach stitches.