Update 10/10 at 9:15 PM CST

"Everything is going just as well as it possibly could be!" said the neurosurgeon on rounds tonight. Can't ask for better than that! He has had three feedings and is now up to goal volume of formula. They were able to remove the catheter tonight (yahoo!) which made him madder than a wet hen for a few minutes but then he was fine. He's just snoozing away on his cocktail of meds. They are now down to alternating morphine and ativan every 5-6 hours, so that's great, too. His night nurse mentioned he is now considered PCCU Transition case, so I'm hoping we'll get to move to a regular room late tomorrow or early Sunday. We'll wait and see how tonight and tomorrow go. His eyes are swollen shut now, but he still isn't nearly as swollen as we expected. He should get to peak swelling tomorrow afternoon and then the swelling will begin to decrease. He has to be able to open his eyes again and they have to be able to remove the drain in his head before he can move to a regular room.

Please keep praying! A special prayer request is to please pray for peace for Sarah--tonight it looked like she's starting to have a tough time with the disruption in her routine and she told me she told me she is "really worried" about Liam despite our reassurances about how well he's doing.

In Christ,
Bill and Lisa

Update 10/10 11:35 AM CST

Liam is doing great! They extubated him at 1 AM ("in the morning" means a totally different thing in hospitals--I always forget that!) with fantastic results. We hit a rough patch around 6 AM trying to find the right cocktail of pain meds that would relieve pain and sedate him without decreasing his heart rate and breathing too much. The right mix appears to be morphine, tylenol with codeine, and ativan. Needless to say, he's knocked out right now.

We've received clearance to start feeding him today and they are going to take out his catheter later, too. He isn't too swollen yet, but they expect that to worsen over the next 48 hours. He can't open his eyes at this point and they are starting to bruise, which is all perfectly normal.

Thanks for the many prayers and good wishes! We know we are being prayed for because we are in good spirits and still doing well despite the sleep deprivation!

In Christ,
Bill and Lisa

Update 10/9 at 8 PM

I need to type this one fast because shift change on the PCCU is almost over, which means I can go back to Liam soon. Bill and I have been out for dinner for the past couple of hours so I'll be glad to get back to Liam.

We FINALLY were able to see him around 6 PM for a brief period of time. They were settling him into his room, so we didn't stay long. Just long enough to kiss his feet (it's the only visible part of him that doesn't have a tube going in or coming out right now) and say hello. He was zonked out, so I don't know that he knew we were there. He has reportedly been awake once and fussed at them for messing with him, so they gave him pain meds to make him comfortable.

He failed the first attempt at extubation but that's fairly common at this stage, so no one worry about that. We'll try again in the morning.

I've been up since 4 a.m., so I'm wiped out and would like to get some sleep. I'll post as I am able tomorrow, so keep checking for updates!

In Christ,
Lisa (& Bill)