Today, I took the time to read back through some of these posts to remind myself of Will's progress (the days all tend to blur into one), and I was struck by how up and down things really have been. It's hard to remember the good days sometimes, particularly when we're looking at a hard stretch. That's why today was so refreshing and rewarding. Will continues to do well, holding his oxygen, keeping his blood pressure up and, in a report that would likely mortify him, peeing like crazy. That last one might seem trivial, but its really the most important thing he's done in the past few days. He has to get rid of that fluid somehow, and this is really the only way. Doing that gets rid of pressure on his chest, which makes it easier for him to breathe, which means they can turn down the ventilator, which means his lungs aren't pushing on his heart, which means it beats better, which means his blood pressure is up, which means his kidneys work better, which means he can... well, you get the picture. He may be small, but that is one complicated little system.

Those who aren't fascinated by in-depth discussions of pee can skip this part, but I did some math just now, and it paints an interesting picture. He weighed 730 grams today, and an ounce of liquid weights 28 grams. So, to get back to where he was just a few days ago (an already slightly bloated 618 grams on Monday, for example), he'd need to get rid of four ounces. There are about 30 ccs in an ounce, and he got rid of just about that much over the course of Saturday. So, he'll need at least another three days at this rate just to get rid of what he took on as an effect of the indomethacin earlier this week, and that doesn't factor in any fluids he continues to get for nourishment and such. They told us this is a minute-to-minute thing marked by very slow movements in either direction, and this definitely shows that.

This was one of those good days, something we'll need to remember the next time things aren't so good. We'll have more of both kinds of days, and need to remember that it is a long journey headed slowly upward. The bumps along the way are often terrifying, but Will is proving himself to be an awfully tough little guy. People tell us that we're brave, but he's the one doing all the work.