Moving in the right direction!

We are thrilled to report that Kale had a better day today! He really seems to be responding to the Nitric treatments. His vent settings went down today from 38 in the morning to 28 this evening (they changed it 3 times). His oxygen levels also went down from about 80% to low 50s. The decreased the Nitric from 20ppm to 15ppm. We're hoping his blood gases stay good throughout the night and the trend continues into tomorrow.

Kale got a blood transfusion today and also got some doses of Lasix to continue to try and dry him out a little. He is back up to 13 mls every 3 hrs for his feeds, we're so happy that he got back on track with those so quickly. He has been handling them well so hopefully tomorrow they will begin fortifying it again up to full calories. He remained at 2 lbs. 3 oz. today as well.

The Drs. did decide to start Kale on Hydrocortizone, which is the low dose steroid that the body naturally produces. They are hoping that the combination of the steroids and the Nitric treatment that this will give him a big boost and his lungs will start improving more quickly. We really hope this is the case! He is doing pretty good in every area with the exception of his lungs, so Derc and I kind of feel like that is the next big hurdle. I'm not sure how long they will decide to do the steroids, it can be a couple of days or a couple of weeks depending on how he reacts.

So, we feel that he had a good day today, and we're excited to see if these treatments will continue to help his lungs. Thank you so much for keeping Kale in your thoughts and prayers!! We know that a lot of people have been praying for his lungs to improve, and greatly appreciate it!!