sunday night update

The latest on our boy is encouraging. He’s been taking momma’s milk by mouth. He’s starting to be able to regulate his own temperature (so he doesn’t need to be under a warmer) and they are talking about putting him in a crib. The ability to regulate body temperature on his own and feeding by mouth are two of the criteria that must be met so that he can be discharged. They changed his IV from his arm to the top of his head. Looks odd but it actually looks more comfortable than it did in his arm. Here’s a picture of Shelby feeding Riley:

We talked to the charge nurse this afternoon and she said that after continued study of the MRI they are questioning whether the stroke was caused by decreased perfusion of blood to the brain or maybe a blood clot. They plan to study this further, probably with another blood test. This probably won’t affect the final treatment though. Sometime tomorrow or Tuesday they plan to start dropping Riley’s medication levels so that they can determine the amount of medication he needs to keep from having seizures without affecting his alertness or ability to progress normally. This is great news as it’s a big step toward getting to take our boy home. It’ll be great to see him open his eyes again. I really miss holding him and looking him in the eye as I talk to him. Maybe tomorrow.

Things are moving in a positive direction. Hopefully Shelby and I will be getting a lot more rest tonight. The nurse in charge of Riley sort of kicked us out tonight and told us to get some rest. I guess we looked bad enough. Shelby has been dealing with some headaches that may be a result of the spinal that she had for the C-section, so she had good reason to look tired. I’m just tired for general purposes. Speaking of which, we’re off to bed. Tomorrow is another, and hopefully better, day.

Jonathan