12/6 (Friday) - The Chest Tube Is Out

The chest tube is finally out! After a couple days of limited drainage, the surgeons and neonatologist finally agreed to remove the chest tube this morning. We have been looking forward to this day for what has seemed like an eternity. What we thought would be a dramatic procedure was really uneventful. The surgeon simply pulled out the tube and covered the incision with a dressing. Leo really had no reaction to what the surgeon was doing.

As I post this, Leo is still doing great on his breathing and he has been calm all day. He had a little spell during the day where they had to increase his oxygen but then he quickly recovered and has been doing great since then. I'm not sure if that was a bad sign or just a fluke.  Unfortunately, the only way to tell if everything has healed is to watch Leo's breathing. If it starts to go south, x-rays and ultrasounds will be done to determine if a chest tube needs to be placed again. Hopefully, no more fluid and no more chest tubes.

Surprisingly, Leo also had his MRI tonight. Leo's MRI order was placed today but everyone thought it would take days and most likely be in the middle of the night. We are happy that steps are being taken to move on to the next set of challenges. I am also very happy the MRI wasn't in the middle of the night. The MRI images won't be analyzed for days so we most likely will not have anything to update on that until early next week.

I got to hold him for a long time tonight and it was incredible.  It no longer seemed synthetic meaning that I could actually wrap my arms around him and he responded better to being held. At one point, he turned his head and buried it into my chest and fell asleep.  Definitely a moment in my life that I will never forget.