Watching the Pee Bag

We get more excitement out of watching our son's hourly level of urine output than basically anything else we've done in the past year. See, when he puts out more than 100 milliliters in an hour, it means he's eliminating more fluid than he's taking in. That's a good thing because between the air pressure from the oscillator and the amount of fluid going into his multiple IV sites, our boy has swollen up a bit...nothing painful, but enough to make watching the pee bag a huge family activity. At one point we had a crowd around it this weekend, with grandparents cheering him on...people fist pumping every time he notched over the 100ML mark. Some people fancy Sunday Night Football. That just isn't how the Barons roll. Give us a 6-pack of OJ from the "patient food" fridge and a decent view of the pee bag, and we'll be cheering Jacob on into the "wee" hours.

Jacob has been improving these past few days. The oxygen output and pressure from the oscillator has been reduced consistently every day. It will get to the point (possibly this week) where we can get him off the oscillator and onto a standard ventilator, with hopes of working toward waking him up. We can't get ahead of ourselves though. We still have a ways to go. But every day he shows small signs of healing, which is good news. Wednesday is definitely the start of five days of Chemo. That will knock us back a few steps. Chemo brings with it a high risk of infection, likelihood of frequent, high fevers, bloodcount rollercoasters that will call for multiple blood & platelette transfusions...not fun at all. Five days on, one month off, then five more days...until we knock this thing out. We're in it to win it at this point. We don't deal well with the "take it day by day" approach. But we're settling in and doing OK given the circumstances.

We will reply to all of your wonderful emails eventually. Thank you so much for sending healing vibes to Jacob. It's definitely been working.

Much Love...