All Smiles

Yesterday that is what Trav and I were. Things have been going so great with Carter lately. He is developing at such a quick (quick for Carter) rate. His therapist have been so happy with his progress, one even cried she was so happy. He finally had an AWESOME blood gas. I got the doctor to back off a while ago telling him that Carter needed time to recover so he didn't do any blood work for tow months. Friday we finally got some done and his co2 was 39!!! I know that doesn't mean much to most of you, but it used to be around 57 and that is when they were talking about putting him back on the vent. His co2 has never been that good.

Although we were very happy about that it wasn't what had us smiling ear to ear. I got a phone call from Dr. Rohn his ENT and he was calling to schedule Carter's first airway dilation! HE kinda lost me after he started talking about taking OUT Carter TRACH!!!!! We still have a ways to go , but the fact that we are actually doing the LAST thing that needs to be done to get it out is beyond exciting for us! He said that he got several opinions and according to what they had to say and literature he was very confidant that this would work. I don't think I could ever express how badly we want this to work.

We still have some docs that are skeptic and think that surgery is the only option. Thankfully they don't have the say. I wanted to kick one of our docs in the face (harsh but true) last week. He is our lung doctor and and in his visit he had more to say about Carters feeding, development, shoes, and especially this than he did about his lungs. His words were exactly this "I don't know why you are going to even try dilation. It isn't going to work and you will wish you had just gone straight to surgery" How's that for a positive doc. Little does he know that if this doesn't work I will never regret trying this first. There is absolutely no harm in this and I would hate to do such an invasive surgery without exhausting all possibilities.

So with all that being said exactly one year from the day we left the NICU we will be going in to Children's Hospital for an overnight stay to dilate Carters airway. Dr. Rohn will go in and do a balloon dilation to expand his airway. They will keep him overnight just for observation. Somewhere 6-10 weeks down the road he will go back in and check out his airway to see if he needs to do it again or "I will walk out and hand deliver you the cutest little guy without a trach". Dr. Rohns words not mine. Can you see why he is our FAVORITE doctor. Seriously I think about the hundreds of patients he has and he takes the time to call us and have conversations like this with us. So mark the Calendar for April 18th as the day we start the last leg of our trach journey.

We are so blessed and can't even begin to fathom life without a trach and the dang suction bag. ;) Being able to hear his voice all day, knowing he is awake because he is crying or talking, being able to see his neck, not having to do trah care every day, the hopes of feeding improvement, and mostly one less foriegn object on my baby are a couple of the resons this leaves me giddy. I hope it works and have faith it will.