Ventilator Progress

Roscoe made great progress on his ventilator yesterday. On Monday when we saw him he was around 38% oxygen on a ventilator that pushed air into his lungs on a periodic basis. Yesterday, he changed ventilators to a "bubble c-pap", which gives a lower amount of constant pressure and he got down to 30% oxygen on that machine. The next step will be a "nasal cannula", which is the oxygen tube that you see many old folks wear in a retirement home when they need supplemental oxygen. We are excited because he's one step closer to breathing room air on his own, but of course the progress can't come fast enough for us.

His next big hurdle will be eating from a bottle. He tried it for the first time yesterday, but didn't take to it so they stopped. He ate 1mL of food in 5 minutes through a bottle, when he is now being fed 32mL in 30 minutes through his feeding tube. Each day they'll try to get him to feed from a bottle, but the doctor said that they won't push it because they want to make it a good experience. If he has negative associations with eating from a bottle (or person) then it will keep him on the feeding tube longer and add more complications.

Here are 3 short videos that Alisha took yesterday while Roscoe was watching his mobile twirl and listening to the music:

I wonder if sometimes God looks down at us with joy and care like we look at Roscoe. I wonder if he puts things in our path/vision to give us joy or to distract us from the trials. Roscoe doesn't see his feeding tube, breathing mask, or various monitors; he just sees the excitement of something simple.

"... whoever touches you touches the apple of [God's] eye."
- Zechariah 2:8