Ripley has been doing pretty well with taking a bottle of pumped milk. He has been able to take them since Thursday night. He is still working his way up to his pre-surgery level of intake, but he is still getting what they call "full feeds." Along with this though, he has had some chylous (fatty liquids) coming out of the chest tube going to his lung. This is a product of the lymphatic system's getting back to functioning. There were questions of whether he should be taken off breastmilk and just have formula in order to chylous, but that wasn't advised yet.
His EKG monitor was taken off today. After his breathing tube was taken out on Day 2, he had a nasal cannula put in. This evening, it was taken out...for about 30 minutes. I was with Ripley when it was taken out and Hayes wasn't so I was excited to have him see Ripley without the EKG and nasal cannula. When he arrived though, the latter was back in. He had some desatting so it was replaced.
It's tough because I know there is progress, but also some regressions. I think it's all normal and I appreciate that the time is being taken to make sure recovery is thorough, but I wish I could know when we can go home.
