Day 41: God Is Good

Scott had to leave to go back to Pennsylvania this morning. Back to the grind, as they say.
Gigi and Poppy decided to visit Paxton one more time before having to head back home to North Carolina. They each got to hold him and give him a little bit of snuggle time before leaving, which he thoroughly enjoyed. The nurse said that he did well overnight. The best news Susanne received all day was that the last two fecal occult tests were negative for blood in the stool. The only concern now was that he has continued to lose a little bit of weight over the last few days. The doctors may decide to add in some formula to the breast milk to increase the overall caloric content. This evening they plan to start bolus feedings. If he does well with that, then the plan is to attempt oral feedings. Go Paxton go!
Paxton's cardiologists have been very pleased with his progress. His incision looks great and he appears stable. His oxygen saturation levels have continued to run a little high despite increasing his antihypertensive medication. They will continue to adjust his dose until the values are where they would like them to be.
The doctor mentioned that they started to notice some discharge from his right eye today. Susanne felt like it was from his eyelashes that were coming in and rubbing on his eye, but the doctors are concerned about an infection. They decided to culture a sample of the discharge from his eye to see if they could grow any bacteria.
Overall, Paxton is doing great under the circumstances. He is definitely not out of the woods by any means, but he has overcome so many obstacles already. He is one tough cookie.