They started aggressively weaning Kiran from the vapotherm this morning. (Vapotherm = humidified air). He started the morning at 6 liters per minute and is currently at 2 and doing really well. The plan was to drop it by one every 4 hours, but because he has done so well, they have been dropping it much faster. At 9, they plan to put in just a regular oxygen cannula, which is our last stepping stone to being without oxygen support entirely. 

Once we are off the vapotherm, we no longer need to be in the PICU. In fact, the vapotherm is really the only thing that kept us here today – it’s hospital policy that the treatment is only done in the PICU.  So we will either move to a regular pediatric room tomorrow or they will let us stay put and just give us regular pediatric care here. 

We were able to start trying oral feeds today, but he has tired out pretty quickly with them so most of his feedings have still been by NG. This is okay – he is hungry and does take to the bottle very well for a solid 5-10 minutes – he just gets worn out because he’s still sick. I am confident we will get back to where we were with this. 

If all goes according to how today went, we may be home by Saturday!