Scope - No change

Toby had a rough afternoon also, dropping stats and not breathing well. They did a scope and saw no change (right vocal cord is completely paralyzed, left vocal cord is intermittently paralyzed). They put a tube of sorts with a nasal trumpet through his nose to help open up his airway. He has severe retraction when he breathes, his little chest just caves in so much, and you can tell he's working hard. This may be one reason why he's not gaining weight; using all of his calories to breathe instead of grow. Tomorrow we're waiting for the main ENT doctor to review the video of the scope and get his opinion about the matter. Pray we have the wisdom to ask the right questions and find out what the next step is. We don't know if we should push for a decompression surgery when he's so young. Bruce is staying with him tonight. My parents come tomorrow to help us out with the other two boys, so that will be very helpful. Goodnight.

Rough Night

Last night was a little bit rough for Toby and Mommy. He had an upset stomach from gas, and something was bothering him, so he didn't settle down until 2 a.m., and that was with some help from a sedative. His morning was good, but around 1:00 p.m. he started dropping his oxygen levels again. The doctor thinks his airway is constricted, so they put a tube down there to open it up. His stridor (noisy breathing caused from a restricted airway) is getting worse. He now has the noise even when he's calm (in the past it could be heard mostly when he was just upset). They are going to have the ENT doctors in there this afternoon to do a scope and find out what's going on with his vocal cords and airway. We're hoping to meet with the ENT doctors, neurosurgeon, and PICU doctors soon to figure out where we go from here. Please pray that we make the right decision. I've been doing research and finding out different options we have, and it's hard to know what should happen next (i.e. should we try a decompression surgery or not). His breathing does not seem to be getting better, so we will need to figure out what to do. Thank you again for praying for us. Carrie & Bruce