With Rowan less sedated, all of his nutrients (now in the form of breast milk), medications, and vitamins are being delivered orally through a tube to his stomach, so yesterday they removed a bunch of lines that were previously used to deliver those directly into his bloodstream. The lines were also used for drawing blood for testing, but they don’t expect to have to do as much of that moving forward. That said, the medication he’s on now still has sedative properties, so they’re keeping him intubated and his urinary catheter in for the time being. He’s mostly breathing on his own, but had at least one bout of apnea yesterday so it’s just safer to leave him intubated.
His MRI is scheduled for 4pm today. Once that’s done and the results sent for analysis, rather than putting the EEG back on they’re planning to switch to a CFM to monitor for further seizures – fewer probes on the head, and will still allow for monitoring of his brain. After the MRI, the team also plans to decrease the dose of the medication he’s on. Currently it’s very high, but it’s working so they don’t want to play with it before the MRI. Afterwards, they can try gradually moving it down to hopefully get it to a point where it’s still managing the seizures, but with fewer side effects and less sedation.
Rowan’s getting lots of story time with his Mom and Dad – Harry Potter and Redwall respectively, since they can only visit him one at a time due to COVID. Hopefully he can keep from getting confused between the various plotlines and characters in the different books.