Concerns...

Matthew had a relatively quiet night last night. His blood acid level increased again which seems to be a nightly occurrence now.

Matthew had his ventilator changed this morning. He developed a leak in the ventilator about 3 days ago. They've been trying to correct it by moving his head into different positions but after a few minutes the leak would kick in again. The ventilator did not fit snugly into his esophagus so every time the ventilator would breathe for him air would escape around the hose and come back out of his nose. The new ventilator hose has an inflatable cuff that will fit tightly against his wind pipe and eliminate the leak. The concern here isn't so much the switching of the ventilator hose but the fact the procedure required more paralytic and pain medication which his kidneys really seem to struggle with.

Right lung function is another developing concern. His Doctors are hoping that by eliminating the ventilator leak his right lung will fully inflate and begin functioning correctly. It appears this lung hasn't functioned correctly since he was born. If the lung doesn't show improvement by early afternoon he will have a CT Scan on the lung to see if it will require some additional work.