In need of some Good News

To say we have needed some good news around here would be an understatment. It feels like we have had nothing but bad new for a while. Well on Tuesday we recieved the best news ever!!!!

Carter's Vocal Chord has MOVEMENT!!!!!!

We went in to the ENT for a routine check up. He wasn't even going to scope him because we did it two months ago and there was absolutely NOTHING going on down there. Thankfully our pulminologist had some questions about the position his chord was paralyzed in so we decided to do the scope. Doctor Rohn put the cord down his throat and when I saw a HUGE smile on his face I seriously busted out in a full blown air guitar dance because I knew exactly what the smile was about. He pulled the cord out and joined me in dance. I would have loved to have seen that on film. Dr. Rohn has been with us from the beginning and knows how big of a deal this is. He is an incredible Doctor and a genuine guy and really shares in our happiness. He said that he was "ecstatic" with what he saw. He also said "it definitely wasn't having a party or anything, but it was moving". He said with what he saw he has no reason to believe that it will get nothing but better from here. We also noted in the visit that Carter has had fluid in his ears for a month straight and two ear infections meaning he will most likely need tubes. The nurse was cracking up that I was smiling when I told her no big deal do surgery. She must have forgotten what we had just heard.

I haven't been very good at the details of everything going on, only because I feel like there is no time. So to back up a little When we saw no movement a couple months a go there was mention of Carter needing to have vocal chord repair surgery. It is very invasive and has way too many scary side effects to talk about. At the time he was only able to use his speaking valve for a very short time. Since then he has built up a better tolerance and also has made some small improvement with his feeding. It definitely made me feel lots better about all the time we spend at speech therapy doing Vital Stim. It has helped a tiny bit with the quantity of how much he actually takes, but has obviously helped A LOT with his vocal chord! This deosn't completely rule out surgery, but gives us lots of hope that it wont be needed.

* Side note Carter has had two blood gasses since being discharged from the hospital. Both were nothing to brag about. He is borderline needing to go on CPAP during the night. The pulminologist said that he will give him till the new year to work out the rest of the Metapneumovirus, the nasty virus he had while in the hospital. At that point we will do another gas and if it hasn't improved we will be admitted to our children's house and put on CPAP. He is hoping since the virus was such a bad one that time will heal him. We have seen many times what time can do and pray that it will benefit him this time too. Praying for a gas in the 40's.