Looking good in my hospital gown.Maybe salmon is my color. : )
What a cool way to be transported from my room to my tests!
Loving on my binkie and horsey...
Sleeping peacefully...glad to have the vent off and the huge tube out of my nose!I am supposed to be sleeping (after spending the night with Avery at the hospital) while mom's watching the baby, but I thought I'd take a few minutes for a quick update. The hospital has wireless, and we've been able to keep posting news on facebook...but in case you haven't been able to piece everything together:
Last weekend, Phil and I noticed that Avery was gagging on some thick drool and having a hard time coughing it up. At the same time, on 2 occasions while feeding he acted as though he couldn't catch his breath, and after some forceful burping on my part he spit up all of his milk. He has never had a problem spitting up, and the gagging was scaring me to death so we headed to the ER at Tampa General, where his doctors are.
He acted just fine in the ER, and I was even allowed to feed him, which he tolerated with no issues. The chest x-ray was normal, and he didn't have a temp. However, with his medical history, the docs wanted to err on the side of caution and decided to admit him over night.
The next day, Avery underwent a dye study in radiology that showed that his esophagus had indeed narrowed at the suture line from his previous surgery, not uncommon. He was still able to swallow some, but not large amounts at a time. His pediatric surgeon planned for him to have a series of 3 procedures in interventional radiology to dilate the esophagus. He would have the first as an inpatient (since we were already there) and then would come back every 3 weeks for the other 2.
Wednesday morning, he had the first procedure, and everything appeared to go as planned. The GI doc did tell us that the stricture was very very tight and that he was not able to open the esophagus very much this time. We went back to our room, where Avery continued to be very fussy and sound really junky. He was suctioned several times, but overall the doctors didn't seem to be concerned. Discharge orders were written on our chart for home that afternoon, as soon as he was tolerating feedings (which he had no interest in).
So with one foot practically out the door, Avery was given some medicine to swallow and a few sucks of pedialite. Within seconds he was choking and turning blue. His o2 sats dropped into the 60s and lower as the nurse and I worked to deep suction him and remove the secretions blocking his airway. After several agonizing minutes (seemed like eternity), his color returned and his o2 sats went up, but he was really struggling to breath. His nostrils were flaring and his ab muscles were working so hard. I practically had a heart attack right there. Needless to say, we did not go home but were promptly rushed to the pediatric icu. A chest x-ray there showed that Avery had 2 partially collapsed lungs. We later learned this was caused by the GI doc not making a bigger opening in the esophagus but accidentally making 2 holes in the esophagus on either side of the narrowing...allowing air to enter the chest and keep the lungs from expanding. Forgiveness is a powerful thing... Avery had bilateral chest tubes inserted to re-expand his lungs and was shortly thereafter put on the ventilator because he was still working so hard to breathe.
As of now, Avery is off of the ventilator and breathing well on his own. He has still had a few pretty dramatic choking episodes which have been terrifying, but he's gone several days now without them. Miraculously, they were able to get a feeding tube down, so he is able to eat. The chest tubes are still in place, which keeps me from holding him, but they should come out the end of this week. The next part of the plan is to insert a g-tube (gastric tube, from outside the belly into the stomach) and to use this to run a wire from the nose out the stomach that will be used to dilate the esophagus over time.
God is good, and although Avery is not completely out of the woods, it looks as though we're on the upswing of things finally. This has been the most terrifying week of my life, and we would not be able to hold it together without our faith in a God that is in control and the love and support of family and friends. Thank you for continuing to keep our baby in your thoughts and prayers. Hopefully all good news to come.
Last weekend, Phil and I noticed that Avery was gagging on some thick drool and having a hard time coughing it up. At the same time, on 2 occasions while feeding he acted as though he couldn't catch his breath, and after some forceful burping on my part he spit up all of his milk. He has never had a problem spitting up, and the gagging was scaring me to death so we headed to the ER at Tampa General, where his doctors are.
He acted just fine in the ER, and I was even allowed to feed him, which he tolerated with no issues. The chest x-ray was normal, and he didn't have a temp. However, with his medical history, the docs wanted to err on the side of caution and decided to admit him over night.
The next day, Avery underwent a dye study in radiology that showed that his esophagus had indeed narrowed at the suture line from his previous surgery, not uncommon. He was still able to swallow some, but not large amounts at a time. His pediatric surgeon planned for him to have a series of 3 procedures in interventional radiology to dilate the esophagus. He would have the first as an inpatient (since we were already there) and then would come back every 3 weeks for the other 2.
Wednesday morning, he had the first procedure, and everything appeared to go as planned. The GI doc did tell us that the stricture was very very tight and that he was not able to open the esophagus very much this time. We went back to our room, where Avery continued to be very fussy and sound really junky. He was suctioned several times, but overall the doctors didn't seem to be concerned. Discharge orders were written on our chart for home that afternoon, as soon as he was tolerating feedings (which he had no interest in).
So with one foot practically out the door, Avery was given some medicine to swallow and a few sucks of pedialite. Within seconds he was choking and turning blue. His o2 sats dropped into the 60s and lower as the nurse and I worked to deep suction him and remove the secretions blocking his airway. After several agonizing minutes (seemed like eternity), his color returned and his o2 sats went up, but he was really struggling to breath. His nostrils were flaring and his ab muscles were working so hard. I practically had a heart attack right there. Needless to say, we did not go home but were promptly rushed to the pediatric icu. A chest x-ray there showed that Avery had 2 partially collapsed lungs. We later learned this was caused by the GI doc not making a bigger opening in the esophagus but accidentally making 2 holes in the esophagus on either side of the narrowing...allowing air to enter the chest and keep the lungs from expanding. Forgiveness is a powerful thing... Avery had bilateral chest tubes inserted to re-expand his lungs and was shortly thereafter put on the ventilator because he was still working so hard to breathe.
As of now, Avery is off of the ventilator and breathing well on his own. He has still had a few pretty dramatic choking episodes which have been terrifying, but he's gone several days now without them. Miraculously, they were able to get a feeding tube down, so he is able to eat. The chest tubes are still in place, which keeps me from holding him, but they should come out the end of this week. The next part of the plan is to insert a g-tube (gastric tube, from outside the belly into the stomach) and to use this to run a wire from the nose out the stomach that will be used to dilate the esophagus over time.
God is good, and although Avery is not completely out of the woods, it looks as though we're on the upswing of things finally. This has been the most terrifying week of my life, and we would not be able to hold it together without our faith in a God that is in control and the love and support of family and friends. Thank you for continuing to keep our baby in your thoughts and prayers. Hopefully all good news to come.
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