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Wednesday, March 25, 2009

The Amazing Color Changing Charlie!

Charlie was extubated this morning and is doing well. His O2 levels have not been as high and steady as they were, but he is still fighting something off in his one lung. Luckily the vapo-therm can give him the support he needs without having to be on the ventilator. So, he is back in his big boy bed and wearing clothes again tonight. Hopefully the progress will continue. No news yet on feedings and what the plan is there.

In the chaos of everything that happened, I do not think that we mentioned that they ended up giving Charlie a couple of blood transfusions. His red blood cell count has been low the past few weeks, but they have been holding off doing a transfusion in hopes that his body would kick in and produce its own at some point. After his episode Monday they decided that it was time to help him out because he had enough to deal with. They gave him 70 mls on Monday and moved his RBC count from 21 to 33. After another 60 mls on Tuesday, his count was up to 44. 

I obviously do not have pics of the lovely shade of purple that he turned on Monday, but we do have pre-transfusion and post-transfusion color pics. He went from ghostly white on Monday to nice pinky red today. His face is actually a little blotchy right now, but they said that is normal for the stress he was under. He is quite the chameleon!





4 comments:

Monica B said...

Is that the snugglesaurus?? Keep up the good days Charlie!

Unknown said...

Charlie is such a cutie!!!

Bridget said...

Yay snugglesaurus! I'm so glad he's off the vent and back to normal color.

Fer said...

WTG Charlie!!!!!!!