James had a second chest tube inserted last night (Thursday) to drain his left side. Over a liter came out, most of it almost immediately. His chest X-rays looked much better today, which is great: all that fluid needed to come out. However, he's otherwise unchanged: still leaking at the same rate, stats all still the same, oxygen has been hovering around 90-92 (when it should be more like 98). After a day of reintroducing food, he's back to a no-food diet with TPN feedings, and they have been discussing reinserting a central line. The more they poke at him, the more stressed he gets, but stress increases the leakage and directly contributes to this condition. It could be a week, or several weeks, or even longer of hospitalization... it could be months of return visits... it could mean other things that we don't fully understand yet.
This has been confusing, and scary, and I haven't processed it all yet so I'm not going to write anything else about it right now.
Instead, I'll share that James is getting stronger about sitting! He had another chair-and-Ipad session today. He took a ride in a wagon and looked completely adorable. He practiced standing. He still didn't really manage it, but he put weight on his feet for a few whole seconds. He has new headphones, and they seem to help him relax and tune out all the doctor babble over his bedside :)
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