Hi everyone,

 

With the chest tube output not slowing down,different options were discussed to get him dried out. The excess draining through the tubs is affecting his nutrition. Almost anything going through his stomach right now is going out his body without absorption because of how saturated he is overall.

 

He's going to go NPO (no eating/drinking) and will get all nutrition by IV for at least the next 7 days. He's also going be on increased diuretics to try to get him to pee more of the fluid out. The goal is to dry him out so much to get his body to absorb the fluids going in again. It's going to put some work onto the kidneys, as they are not going to be happy about how dry he is going to get, but long term this is the best option to get everything flowing correctly again.

 

While this is going on, concerns over Paxton's mental state only increase given the longer stay he is going to have now. We got approval today that he is allowed to leave the cardiac floor with a nurse. He can go to the rehab gym, the lobby, and even outside! We're working on building a routine for him, so he has things throughout the day to look forward to outside of the room.

Also, today he had his hair washed for the first time since being here. It was with a cap that had rinse less soap in it.

 

Thank you for everyone thinking of Paxton. We're going to get through this, it is just going to take a little longer than we had hoped.

 

Aaron and Elise