Praying for Poop!

I was thinking that I would have had lots of time to write an update this past week, but I don’t know where all of that time went. At the same time, things for Carson were pretty mellow this past week. He is recovering very well from his hernia surgery. The pediatric surgeons came by yesterday and said that his incision is healing well and that they are happy with everything. He’s not required any extra ventilation or other changes since the surgery. This is a huge blessing since we thought that the hernia was going to be a major problem. Thankfully, it’s done and over with and now we’re on to better things.

Carson is having his 4th surgery today, to have his tracheotomy done. The doctors said the surgery will last about one or two hours. After the surgery, Carson will still be on the ventilator for a few days as they transition him to breathing through the trachea tube. We are excited and sad for this transition; excited because that means less tubes in his face, and sad because the trachea tube sounds like it will be a lot of work to take care of.

We talked with our first respiratory therapist on Sunday and just got a brief overview of some of the event that will be coming up in relation to the trachea tube. First is a set of 5 two hour classes that Heather and I will take to learn everything about caring for Carson and his tube. We will also get to spend a 12 hour period and a 24 hour period at the hospital to show the doctors that we can care for Carson, and to give us the confidence that we need to take him home. It all sounds a little overwhelming right now, but I’m sure we’ll feel better after the training.

One thing that we are praying for right now is for our cats. We may have to find new homes for them because of the trachea tube. Infection and blockage are big risks with the tube and cat hair poses a plugging hazard. We haven’t asked the therapist about it yet, but we are thinking it won’t be in the kitties favor.

We are also praying for poop. Carson needs to begin to have some poop before they can give him a feeding tube. He has a tube to his stomach already that drains the secretions for it. They will also have to wait until that tube begins to run clear before they try to feed him. So please pray that he poops and starts making some clear secretions!

My mom is going home tomorrow. She’s been here for a week and has been a huge help for us. She was able to drive Heather to the hospital every day. She cleaned parts of our house that we didn’t even know that we had. She also got to spend some good time with Avery (Avery calls her Ma-Kitty for Grandma Kitty. Cute.). We’ll miss her, but she’ll be back out this fall for vacation!

That’s all for now. We want to say thanks again for everyone that has been helping us with dinners and yard work. It is so nice to come home and have things taken care of! Less stress is good.

Love,
Steve and Heather