Update #7

Update on Tobias

If only this little man would except what’s good for him, then he would be better off. If he had it his way he would live his life on his belly. The problem with that is that his lungs don’t work as well unless he goes into other positions. The way it works is that the air in your lungs goes to path of least resistance. So on his belly the air goes to the back of his lungs but he needs to be on his sides and back as well to help open up the rest of his lungs. He’s been having trouble where his lungs on mainly his right side but it has switched sides a few times is more closed up. Thankfully last nights x-ray showed huge improvements with his lungs both being opened up. Because of all the issues with his lungs not fully being opened up he’s been requiring way more oxygen. The doctors have found that he does do much better on his oxygen when his blood pressure is higher so they did up his blood pressure medication again. They have also switched all of his ventilator settings into more like what they give older babies now that he’s getting older. The cardiologist has started Tobias on a new medication for his pulmonary hypertension to hopefully wean him off of the nitric oxide and have his body produce more of its own. When he was explaining the medication to us he was saying that it’s one you’ve probably heard on tv. We were both very confused about what it could be. Then he told us that our two month old baby was going to be taking viagra. Not something I ever thought I’d say, but it was originally made to help with pulmonary hypertension and it just had the bad side effect that we all think of when you hear viagra. Then this other company said what you think is a bad side effect we think is a good thing. So fun fact of the day viagra is really supposed to help pulmonary hypertension. If this doesn’t work for him then there is one other medication for him to try. If neither one works then they will consider sending him to Charleston to have a heart catheter. Charleston just has a little bit more to offer when it comes to a surgical stand point with cardiology. Even though we will do it if we have to, I really hope he doesn’t need to be flown to Charleston to have a procedure. I keep telling Tobias we will take him to the beach when he can actually enjoy it. Tomorrow he is going to have an echo to look at his heart again and see if his pulmonary hypertension has had any effect on his heart. Thankfully so far it hasn’t but they are keeping a very close eye on it to make sure it doesn’t. They have pushed out his eye exam until next week to hopefully give him more time before pushing him again. He will also be getting an ultrasound of his brain next week. It’s just a routine check to make sure he hasn’t developed any brain bleeds.