October 13th

Well, yesterday was another rollercoaster ride. When we got the call his numbers weren't recovering like they should, we were again very nervous and concerned about his status. When we arrived at the hospital, there were 2 members of our church family there along with my parents to greet us. Connie and Bernie (Bernadine), were the members of the church family who came to visit. They came to show their support and to also reiterate to me that everything concerning Benjamin is truly in God's hands and that no matter what God's will is, He will make sure we have what we need to get through this. They prayed with us and also visited with Benjamin. His numbers did stabilize back out again and then later in the afternoon he opened his right eye for us again...(the left one was still quite swollen from being on his belly for the past few days and laying on that side)...that was pretty amazing. It was the first time he had opened his eyes since last Wednesday night before he came off of ecmo. He also was moving quite a bit and grabbing our hands and responding appropriately to touch and stimulation. We are still so proud of our little guy, he is such a fighter. They flipped him on his belly again this morning at about 4:15am and the plans for today are to flip him on his back again later in the shift to help with swelling, etc... and possibly wean a bit on his ventilator settings if surgery is ok with it (the surgery Dr's call all the shots with his care). His ventilator settings are pretty maxed out right now, so if he can tolerate it, they want to back off a bit. I'm praying he will allow them to do this and will stay stable. I'll keep you all posted as much as I can on his progress. Luv, Kel