Update 8:00 - A whole slew of procedures

Not a lot of major procedures, but a fair amount of moderate and minor procedures. For example, this morning we had an MRI to rule out a few things from earlier this week. That meant we had to stop his feeds and medicine, including pain medication at midnight and early morning hours because they wanted to sedate him based on breathing problems he has had. Then they discovered that his external drain was too far into the ventricle and needed to be backed out a bit and re-stitched to his scalp (at bedside). And amidst all of this his IV from Tu failed and had to be replaced. It took three attempts using an ultrasound to find a vein that would work. The first stick looked good, but then they ended up going through it and had to start again. The second one wouldn't work after several repositioning. The final stick was messy and resulted in us replacing all of his bed linen. As a result, we've also decided to install a PICC line (which is long enough to go from his arm to the large vein that enters the heart). It's more stable and we don't want to risk any more lines that fail and given we'll be here into next week - it seems like a good option. If the IV team had been able to get him in the first stick, we might have waited. But based on the above events, we've opted for the PICC on Saturday.

And the whole process wore him out (and us a little bit)

The really good news is we've been able to hold Cole a whole lot more, which as a side benefit the doctors indicate will help with the swelling. We're noticing improvements over the last few days, although we still haven't been able to check out his pupils due to how swollen his eyes are. To top it off, the swelling has resulted in some discoloration around his eyes which resembles a little bit of bruising. So we may leave next week with two 'black eyes'.

He's still sore and doesn't like to be picked up too much or jostled, but settles down much faster when he is. And we have found him moving his arms around, making more noises, including his patented tongue sucking (or at least the start of it) - which is encouraging. We're optimistic we'll get to see those beautiful bright eyes again very soon. Thanks again for everyone's love, prayers, and support.