May 7 Setback

Hello everyone,

Ok...Carter had a setback today so he won't be coming home on Friday. He threw up a couple times and let some of the liquid go into his lungs. They were going to go back to a NJ tube but Kristi asked if he could keep his NG tube. The pediatrician agreed but the new resident disagreed. Carter still has his NG tube for now but if he has another episode, they will likely put in a NJ tube. Here is a brief rundown.

• The holes in his heart "shunt" blood to the other chamber.
  
• His oxygen saturation levels >90% cause more blood to shunt than below 90% due to more oxygen in the blood
  
• at 100mG of oxygen, he over saturates (see bullet #2)
• at 75mG of oxygen, he under saturates (goes below 80%) (these are the two settings, there are no in-between ones)
  
• His oxygen levels >90% cause the heart to pump more, keeping the heart larger and placing excess fluid in the lungs among other things.
  
• They give him diuretics to get rid of the fluid in the lungs. They have since increased his dosage to get rid of more fluid.
• They give him heart medicine to slow, strengthen and stabilize the heart.
  
• They would rather have him be oversaturated on oxygen than undersaturated.
• They want him to gain weight
• The diuretics get rid of fluid and make him lose weight.
  
• Go to top and repeat.

They won't have the results of todays medicine changes until Monday so we're there for another few days. We may attend the PCMC LDS Branch that meets on the 3rd floor each Sunday at 10:30 a.m. for a 30 minute service.

Thank you for your continued love and support, while today's events were disappointing, we know we are getting closer.

Love,
Alan & Kristi

Carter's blog: http://andersons6175.blogspot.com/

Carter's PCMC page: http://www.carepages.com/ServeCarePage?cpn=CarterJAnderson&ipc=pinviteemailtemplate