On the upswing

By the time we made it to the hospital today, it was late afternoon, but Lawson was wide awake and happy, happy, happy! Danielle left this morning, so it was just Brian, Mom and myself. Brian and I got a chance to speak with Dr. Auten, our current Attending Physician, for quite some time. He was really pleased with Lawson's progress and reviewed the plan for the weekend, with one minor change. He let us know that they would like to wait until Lawson is off the morphine and extubated before beginning feeds this time, just to make sure he doesn't get stressed out and throw up with the tube still in. We also found out that it's time to get a new doctor; Dr. Izatt will be Lawson's new doctor starting tomorrow. We've both met her briefly, but haven't had a chance to talk at length with her about Lawson yet. She has, however, been following Lawson's case, so she's caught up and ready to begin.

Lawson was awake for at least an hour while we were there today. Everyone who came by,-nurses, doctors, even other mom's we've met, commented on how 'content and comfortable' he looked today. You can hear us chatting with the nurse in the video about how well he is doing. It really seems like getting the unhealthy part of the lung out of his little body has literally given him new life! He is breathing better, seems more comfortable, is crying less, and overall just seems happier. His x-ray is also showing progress; the portion of the left lung that remains has already begun expanding to compensate! I truly believe we're on the upswing here!

Just before we left today, I had been at Lawson's bedside and just finished pumping. So I was by myself when Dr. Rice came by. He was all smiles and came right over to hug me. I just had to tell him about the blog and Lauri's comment about wanting to give him hugs and kisses. He was blushing and laughing when he said, "Aww, that's sweet, but completely unnecessary. We're just doing our job here." He's not only an amazing surgeon with excellent bedside manner, but he's modest as well. :)