Update on Corban - May 19, 2008

Hello everyone, I wanted to send you a quick update on our son's progress over the last couple of days. Yesterday, was a difficult day as it seemed like every step that we had taken forward we took two additional steps backwards. Last night was hard because we felt like Corban may have regressed rather than made progress. However, a bright spot of last night was that Corban not only had his eyes open but he was following Mindy and I as we were talking to him. He also tried to grab onto our fingers and hand which was encouraging since we haven't been able to hold him yet. All in all though yesterday was basically a standstill day in the way of progress.
Today however, has been just the opposite. We called in this morning shortly after 10:00 a.m. and we were met with great news. The nurse told us that the doctor has weaned his oxygen down to 80% which is great (a reminder that we breath 21% oxygen). He also told her that Corban could be weaned three percent every hour instead of just the one percent so long as he tolerated it. This was encouraging but also very scary for Mindy and I because we were unsure how he would respond. However, after lunch we stopped by the hospital and saw that Corban was down to 73% oxygen, which is the lowest he's been since he was born. They have also taken him off one of his medicines for his blood pressure, are planning on taking him off two of his three antibiotics later today. They had also been able to take off one of his two monitors (his pre-ductual one for all you medical people reading this). We also found out that both the doctor and the nurse feel like he is turning the corner which is great news for us. While we were there they turned down his oxygen even more to 70% which is great but they did tell us that he would need to be in there for at least nine more days because of one of the antibiotics that he is on. Corban seems to be making great progress and we are very encouraged and thrilled today. Please continue to keep our little guy in your prayers as he is doing better but is not out of the woods yet. Thank you again for all of your love, support and prayers for our little guy and us!