The Tube is Out April 6, 2010

They got the tube out and Blake is breathing well on his own. It sounds like they will still need another day to see if the Botox is working. For now we can be very hopeful.

Chad said that his breathing seems a little worse than before, but it is a different pitch. They have found some fluid in his upper lungs but are not too worried about it. It seems to be consistent with cold/flu type symptoms. Aleah was with them over the weekend and she was sick. They think that maybe the breathing noise is associated with the breathing noise. The important thing test today was the Swallow Test which he failed miserably according to Chad. They started Blake with a light fluid and moved up to the constancy of baby food and he aspirated the food. When someone with healthy vocal cords swallows “down the wrong pipe” they cough and push the stuff back up and keep it out of the lungs. Blake is not able to do that so the food/drink would go into his lungs and cause a serious infection. The feeding tube that he had before was straight into his stomach. To avoid any chance of him spitting up and aspirating, they replaced this NG tube with a NJ tube. This one goes into a sphincter from his stomach straight into his intestines. This way he gets the needed nutrition, but has no chance of aspiration. They will continue to monitor Blake for a few days to see how the Botox works out. Chad does not feel like it is going to work, although he and Becky are trying to stay as positive and hopeful as possible. All of Blake’s Numbers are good enough that they could take him out of the ICU and put him on the floor. Right now there is room in ICU and Chad is hoping that they will keep Blake in there as long as they can since he will only be sharing his nurse with one other baby. With the NJ tube Blake will not be allowed to go back to Ely. They do not know if Ely even has the capability to deal with this type of feeding tube.

Tomorrow they are sending someone in to talk with Becky and Chad about the trachea tube. They are going to give the Botox a try, but if it fails, the trachea tube will be the only other alternative. This of course sounds very scary. We will have more info about it after the consultation.