Sorry I didn't post yesterday. This STL visit is different from last time. Damon is older and he is used to me being around when he needs me so I haven't been getting very far away from his side. We also wait a lot on dr's who are supposed to be coming in any minute and then in turns into several minutes.

Sunday and Monday there wasn't a whole lot going on. Damon didn't have any echo's or any other tests. He was just getting his O2 turned down more and more. On Monday though, they had a hard time finding his pulse in his right foot again so they did an ultrasound on his leg where they went in for the cath to make sure there weren't any big clots that formed. They didn't find one. He was down to .1 liters of O2 last night when we went to sleep and when I woke up this morning to feed him it was turned off.

However, after I fed him and got him back in bed his sats (level of oxygen in his blood) were low and they weren't coming back up on their own. I called the nurse in and she and I both weren't convinced that the numbers were right because she said if his sats were really that low he would be laboring to breath and his color wouldn't look as good and he seemed fine. Anyway, she put on a new pulse ox monitor and moved it to his hand and turned the O2 back on to .4 liters this morning.

We are weaning from oxygen again today and that's about it. They started him on Analapril (sp??) and Dogoxin (sp??) which are both meds to help his heart function. They are uping the dose of Analapril today up to what it will be all the time. He will have another echo tomorrow to check on his heart function and also to look at the spot on his aorta where it narrowed before. Dr Gandhi said that if need be, he might have to have another heart cath while we are here to stretch the aorta more. He hopes to be able to send us home without oxygen, but it's a possibility that he might have to have some when we leave. He said that there is an outside chance that he might want to go ahead w/ the surgery, but that's not the ideal so I think they will try everything else first so we can wait a little while longer.

He got his iv out today because it was practically out already and his vein stopped taking in the fluids anyway. We asked if we could go up to the garden and walk around and our nurse said she thought he would be ok with out his O2 while we were up there so he got to take that out. Right now he isn't on any so we are praying that he can do well enough to keep it off. The cardiac resident told me this morning to probably plan on being here for a few more days.

Jeremy went home on Sunday and my mom stayed up here with me. Myles is going here and there staying with different people. We are trying to keep him busy so that he doesn't think about not being able to be at home with us. He wants to be up here so bad.

Please pray that Damon will do fine without the oxygen, pray that his heart function has improved since the cath, pray that the aorta hasn't re-narrowed, pray that we will be able to come home soon.

It's very hard for me not to sit in that room and look at Damon and think about how bad he has it and feel sorry for him and myself. But this morning I was coming back from getting coffee and I saw a lady who takes care of parents in the PICU Parents lounge taking a family down to leave and they had all their stuff, but not their child. So we have so much to be thankful for and grateful for and God is with Damon all the time. Thank you for all your prayers so far and I'll update as I know more. Talk to you all later.

Sarah