Not long after my last post Gage was intubated again. It's been six days now and Gage is doing better on his breathing although he is still on the ventilator. They are preparing him for a second attempt of extubation to occur either Monday or Tuesday this week. Gage has also been on a new drug called Sotalol which is being used to try and control his SVT. He's been on Sotalol now for approximately five days.
It causes his heart rate to be a little lower than it would normally be at. The real test will be when they go to extubate him again. Based on Gage's history, it's very likely that the extubation could trigger his SVT however if the Sotalol is really working he may not have SVT at all. If he has SVT then we know the drug isn't working. If he doesn't have SVT then either the drug is working and preventing the SVT or it could be that Gage just happened not to SVT on that day.
The plan would then be to run some test on Gage and see if Gage can be forced into SVT as a method to test whether Sotalol works for him or not. Kristy has told me that Gage has been much more awake this past week and he's even shared a few smiles. He doesn't seem to be as uncomfortable as he had been the week before. Maybe a sign that he's in good enough shape to stay off the ventilator after they extubate him. We hope!! Then we just have to deal with the SVT.
