Losing Oxygen

Finally, losing oxygen is a good thing. Our medical supply company called today and said they would be by to pick up our oxygen tanks. Fletcher has been completely off supplemental oxygen since July 11th, and was only on it at night since May 30th, but we still had the tanks at our house just in case. Of course wearing the cannula didn't always mean he was actually getting supplemental oxygen. The top photo was taken on March 4th and the second is from May 26th. I love to compare the size of the adhesive patches relative to his cheeks. It really illustrates his amazing growth.

We have a two-story house and Fletcher's nursery is upstairs, so we had the big tank next to the stairs and 50 feet of tubing for the nasal cannula, so we could have him upstairs or down without having to move the tank. After nearly five months, that tank had become a fixture in our house. The entryway looks naked without it there.

I did manage to talk the delivery guy into letting me keep one portable canister at the house in case of an emergency. I highly doubt (and definitely hope) that we'll ever need it, but it is a nice little security blanket for me (of course this is coming from a mom who insisted that her boy stay on supplemental O2 during the day for a month after the NICU said his saturations were adequate... "adequate" just didn't sound like a word I wanted to use when describing Fletcher's oxygenation after all he'd been through).

We also had our last home health nurse visit today (another measure ordered solely for the benefit of pushy, insecure mom). Fletcher has been growing well, weighs 14 lbs 8 oz, his oxygen saturation was 97, and his lungs sound good. Can't ask for more than that.