Posted Mar 31, 2007 8:42am

Day 48
2 pounds 6 ounces

Ryan had a pretty good day yesterday. (It delights me to be able to say he has had a good day, and it seems we are having more and more of them. Yea!) They went down on the ventilator rate to 25. His oxygen needs went up a little, but we are hoping he will adjust to the new rate and begin to need less oxygen. He needed an O2 concentration between 60-80% yesterday. The doctor said he was thinking about starting Ryan on a round of steroids to help with his lungs. He is considering starting them as early as sometime this weekend. He said that he would be talking to us before he administers these so we will be informed of the pros and ****. We've only heard good things about these, and without knowing any **** we are looking forward to these. Everyone tells us that after the steroids things move easily and pretty rapidly towards getting off of the ventilator. We are excited! Ryan did very well with kangarooing. I wish I could have held him longer. The doctor decided to start the TPN (IV nutrition) and lipids again. Ryan had some drainage in his eyes yesterday, so they sent a sample for culture. Meanwhile, the doctor has ordered some antibiotic eye drops (Erythromycin). His feedings are at 18 ml every 3 hours. He is still tolerating them well. He is still struggling with bilirubin issues and was on the bili light and blanket. Yesterday afternoon they checked his bilirubin level, and it was at the lowest it has been since the 23rd. The level was 4.8. They took the light away, but he still remains on the blanket.