Good Day for Ethan! ETHAN IS OFF THE VENTILATOR! So amazingly fantastic that Ethan is off the ventilator. He is so super awesome. It was the best feeling ever to be able to hold him after a long 10 days of not being allowed to. Pretty sure Ethan loved it just as much as I did.
Some bone marrow tests are back and he has iron defiency anemia. Not sure why. What they are thinking is that the body is not absorbing the iron he is taking in through his normal diet. Without iron your body cannot create healthy red blood cells. Which then leaves us confused because he now is making healthy red blood cells. One of two things is happening; 1) The blood tranfusion gave him the iron he needed to create the healthy red blood cells or 2) What happened is not just because he has iron anemia but something else, something temporary, triggered him to go over the edge. They are doing tests to find out either way. They are testing his blood for things like lead, copper, the list really goes on and on. Anything that might explain this further. He will be visiting a Hemotologist twice a week so they can ensure his hemoglobin is stays stable. Hemoglobin is basically his red blood cells, red blodo cells carry oxygen throughout the body. When Ethan arrived at Primary's his hemoglobin was a 2, a nornal hemoglobin for a child is 11-13. If his body is just not obsorbing the iron then he will need to have iron given to him regularly through an IV or MV (which I guess an MV is the same as an IV but through the muscle). That is all I know and I am not a medical professional so I might have it all wrong. One mystery that still remains is Ethan obviously lost about 80% of his blood, which is why he had to have 2 blood transfusions in the first 24 hours. Where did that blood go? It was not in his lungs as we initially thought. His lungs were simply full of fluid because of the whatelse was going on in his body. If I understand it right the fluid in his lungs is a result of whatever else was going on, similar to a runny nose being the result of a cold.
Thinking we will be on the floor by Friday! Just to get out of the PICU is another big step.
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