Recoop

Here was Elijah's side of a phone conversation with my dad yesterday, after we had gotten home from the hospital:

"I went to hossa-pi-doh (hospital) wif mommy-daddy. Sammy went to Sandy's (daycare) and we went to hossa-pi-doh and I pwayed wif car castle and I cried a wittle bit in the big room (OR) and Daddy said, 'It's ok, E-ijah!' and he gived me medicine and I cried a wittle bit."

Awwwww.

Elijah woke up with dark circles under his eyes this morning, so he stayed home with Dan today to rest.

I need to come up with a formula for how long it takes to recover from hospital time. It would be something like..

For every 5 hours of time spent in the hospital, 10 hours of solid sleep is required in order to feel rested and 1 week must pass before emotions are stabilized.

We are looking forward to Elijah's appointment with Dr. K next week. We're hoping to form a plan and possibly get more answers (Thanks for the esophageal reflux comment, Mina! We'll look into that.).

A quick thing about Sammy...he has been really clingy lately. He does not tolerate being held, or looked at, by strangers ("strangers" = anyone besides Dan or me). If I walk into another room he cries and crawls after me and then pulls himself up on my legs so I will pick him up. He responds to touch way more than Elijah ever did and I would consider Elijah to be extremely snuggly! How did I get lucky enough to have TWO snuggly little boys? And don't tell Dan I said this, but he's pretty snuggly, too. :)

I think I'm through with this scatter-brained post. Thank you for checking in on our family!

Bronch results

We are home from the hospital and we bear good news! Dan and I both knew in our guts that this was the news we would receive. There are no obstructions in Elijah's airway (aside from one teeny tiny harmless cyst which we will do nothing about), but his airway is very red and irritated. We even have photos that show the redness, but they are a little bit gross so I won't share. :) Why does he have an irritated airway? No idea! It is something he will "grow out of" (I always love that answer) and that we will obviously need to keep a very close eye on after he is extubated after surgery next month. We meet with Dr. K next week (pulmonologist), and hopefully we can come up with a solid extubation plan with him. I imagine it will involve steroids and epinepherine.

Elijah was such a brave boy today. More brave than he has ever been before. The ONLY tears he shed were at the very end of getting his IV removed. I was so proud of him! Signs of maturing were definitely evident in our boy today.

My favorite line of the day was from the anesthesiologist. When he first came into the room, he looked at Elijah and said, "Well! You sure look better than your chart!" :)

Today was a tiring but best-case-scenario day. We are happy about the news and it feels great to have this checked off the list. Another piece of the puzzle falls into place! Thanks so much for the prayers..

Bronch #2

I'm not going to bring my computer to the hospital today, so there won't be any updates until we get back. Hopefully that will be soon! And with good news!

I was up from 1:00 to 5:00 this morning doing what I do best lately...fretting. Elijah is asking for food :( and Sam is slobbering all over everything. We are heading out in a bit to bring Sammy to daycare and then onto that place we love and hate.

Please pray for good news!

A gentle doctor

My prayers were answered yesterday. Dr. S, Elijah's ENT doctor, was very gentle. After chatting with us for a few minutes, he said what I expected him to say. We need to get Elijah in for a bronchoscopy-laryngoscopy before his open heart surgery. If there is something serious going on with his airway, we will need to know about it before then. I am doing my best not to think too far ahead.

I envision the next four months to be a gigantic pyramid holding many steps. Climbing the steps is not going to be easy, or fun, but most definitely necessary. And we will have to take the steps one at a time, and try not to worry about how out of breath we will be in the upper quadrant.

Of course there can't be an appointment without an Elijah Funny, right? We were chatting with Dr. S and he asked who E's cardiologist and primary docs were. We told him their names and he gushed about both of them. He said, "Elijah is in THE BEST hands, honestly. You just cannot beat those two doctors. Not possible." We agreed with him and told him how much we love them both. Then Dr. S said jokingly, "Now, Elijah's ENT doctor on the other haaaand..." And right on cue, without missing a beat and as if he totally got the joke but didn't really think it was funny, Elijah let out this HAhahahaha super fakey laugh. It was great.

The final word from Dr. S was that he is concerned. Elijah's tendency to get severe croup post-extubation is a serious situation. But, like Dr. S said, he is in good hands. The best. We are taking the necessary steps to keep our boy safe and that is all we can do. We have an appointment with Dr. K, Elijah's pulmonologist, in a few weeks, so we will get his thoughts, as well. Add Dr. K to that list of the absolute best doctors, by the way.

I have a hunch about all of this. I don't feel like Dr. S will find anything serious in Elijah's airway. I feel like it will be slightly narrowed, possibly due to scar tissue from all of his intubations, but I don't feel like it will require intervention at this point. When Elijah gets out of breath, he doesn't wheeze or struggle beyond what he should. He never sounds croupy unless he is sick or unless he has been intubated. That is a very good sign.

His bronchoscopy-laryngoscopy is scheduled for May 2nd. So, within the next month or so we should have a better handle on the croup worries surrounding Elijah's upcoming surgery.

One step at a time!