The Story of Monday January 18th - Part III

Well I'm home with my wife, which makes me happy, I just wish that the boys were here with us, and Amanda was here too.

Before I left CHLA, I went in and saw Reagan after his latest blood gas test.  He's still progressing, still getting a little bit better as time and the treatments go on.  I felt sad leaving him there.  Hillary and Liza are driving down there tomorrow, it will be good for her to spend some time with him.

I drove home and stopped by St. Johns to see Landon.  He's doing much better than his brother, but he's still pretty sick as well.  Landon is still on the ventilator, but they are slowly preparing him to be taken off.  In fact, while I was there, the nurses were telling me that they had discussed taking him off, but they wanted to keep him on it for just a little while longer.  I'm going to spend most of the day with him tomorrow while Hillary is down at CHLA.

It was kind of surreal being with Landon after spending all that time with Reagan. 

With Reagan, every time I went into the NICC to see him, I had to scrub up and put on a surgical gown, surgical mask and gloves.  So for all the time I was there I never got to actually feel him when I touched him.  At St. Johns, the NICU isn't as controlled, I still had to scrub up (I've washed my hands up to the elbow about 10,000 times since Wednesday) but you don't have to wear the stuff, so I could actually feel Landon's skin as I held his hand. 

Also, Reagan is so sedated, that he doesn't really move, he's just still.  To hold his hand with my finger, I had to kind of pry his hand open then fold the fingers back around mine.  Landon isn't on any pain meds so he responds to touching.  I just touched his right hand with my finger and he opened his hand and grabbed my finger as I placed it into his palm.

Here is a picture of Landon, note that he is still in the incubator, but he is improving.....

I also took a little video of Landon sleeping in his little cocoon.  I didn't realize how dark it turned out until I got home, but I'm still going to post it because I like that he's moving and you can see that it's like he senses my presence because he tries to open his eyes.....



Will update tomorrow after my visit with Landon and as soon as I get a report from Hillary.

Thanks again,
Phil