Making Progress...

Ammon was officially pulled off the bipap yesterday and is now just on the high-flow nose canulas. We are optimistic that he continues to move in the right direction with his breathing and will not go back to the bipap. Summer stayed with Ammon last night and he didn't sleep well. He clearly appears to be in pain still, and is quite agitated. He moaned and shook his head back and forth throughout the night. Those pain and calming medications that have worked for him before didn't have the same calming effect last night, and Summer and Ammon had a long night. This morning, Summer got to actually hold and rock Ammon for the first time in two weeks. Ammon was still in pain and agitated, but at least he was able to be held in his Mother's arms again. Ammon has continued to receive increased feedings via his GJ tube, and that might be causing some of the agitation, but he needs these feedings to help him get out of the PICU. We also think the steriods administered with his cancer treatments are causing him to feel like he is crawling out of his skin. The steriods are as critical to his cancer treatments as the chemo, and in some regards are more critical apparently. However, he only needs to be on the steriods for another day as he completes his induction phase (unless there are any changes to his overall roadmap due to the complications experienced over the past two weeks, but we don't think there will be). I'm with Ammon tonight and he seems to be doing a little better pain and agitation wise. One reason is that he had a couple huge diapers tonight. I never thought I would be so happy to see some serious blowouts, but it just means he's finally getting his whole system working and all the bad stuff out. Hooray for big diapers!!!

Paki (Grandpa) left last night and we miss him so much. He has been a true blessing to have here at home with the kids. Some days there wasn't much for him to do and other days there was surely too much, but just having him here made everything better. We have so many friends and family that are helping out with Coleson and Brynn, there is so much goodness and kindness being offerred on literally an hourly basis. Though it is clearly insufficient, thank you again to everyone for the prayers, faith, and service on Ammon's behalf, it helps us continue to be strong during this time.