Steroid Time

Archer had the line in his right arm taken out that was used for blood draws and monitoring his blood pressure. The blood draw line got clogged a couple of days ago and the part that monitored his blood pressure was not getting very good readings. It is undecided if they will add another similar line for these functions.

Archer's blood pressure (being monitored by a cuff) has still been good. He was taken down to even more smaller doses of blood pressure medication. Not much left to go!

During the last 24 hours, Archer's oxygen levels have stayed in the high 70s. He has been very squirmy and his breathing has been constantly up and down about every 5 minutes. The doctor did decrease a couple of pressure settings on the ventilator. This seemed to help a little. He also started taking an inhaled steroid, in combination with his breathing treatment, that should help lung development. It could take up to two weeks to see the results of these steroids. The steroids are similar to what someone with asthma or chronic breathing problems might take. Archer is expected to be on these steroids for a short period of time.

Archer is also off the antibiotics that he started about a week ago to cure whatever sickness he may have had, if any.

The hernia that Archer has is most likely because his boys are starting to drop. After they drop, there is air left from where they were before. This is a common occurrence.