Surgery week is here!

First off, the big thing - Gideon’s first surgery in a series of surgeries for his cleft is THIS week February 6. This is cosmetic, so piecing together a top lip and closing up his nose. It will be roughly a 3 hour or so surgery and they expect to take the entire time. I think we’re most nervous about recovery - Gideon LOVES his thumb. And he is not allowed to have it for the first week. Pray for us haha. We will be there at least Wednesday - Friday. 

For our pulmonary update it’s a big one and a lot of details but I will try to keep it high level. The week before Christmas, our vent supply company respiratory therapists came out and made changes to Gideon’s vent. We thought these were good changes, but she actually caused him pain and could have injured him if we did not catch it. I am so very thankful for a nursing team who cares and writes a lot of notes and a husband who is diligent enough to read the entire manual for our vent. Gideon was over pressurized for 48 hrs. We reversed the changes and everything seemed ok but 2 days later he had a mucous plug which led to an ER visit. We then had a 3 day PICU stay which led to a new pulmonologist for us who spent hours upon hours figuring out that there’s something wrong with the vent. He also realized how good Gideon is doing and said we can start weaning the vent. He switched us to his service and we had our first appointment with him on January 29th. We knew he’d make a few changes, but he made even more changes and showed us how to start taking breaks off the vent and increasing time each week. This is a huge praise. We are hoping we can have extended breaks off the vent in just a couple of months.