Sunday, January 25, 2009

Update on Jayden 1-25

Well, we haven't had much news except the doctors are concerned about what is going on with Jayden's right lung. I spoke with the pulmonologist and he said he expected the lung biopsy result to still take another 4 weeks or so, so we are just waiting....

Jayden is scheduled to see nutrition, genetics, pulmonology and GI in the next month along with his weight check ups and hopefully over that time, some of the doctors will discover something new or have new ideas where to go.

Dr. K, his pulmonologist said the initial tests on his lungs did not show food particles, meaning it is unlikely he is aspirating food into his lungs. He said if the primary ciliary dyskenesis comes back normal, then we will just have to go back to the drawing board and brainstorm where to go from there.

As far as the feeding tube, he has gained a pound in two months and they were really hoping to see even more gain. We will see. Regardless, it sounds like he will be on it for at least another three months and then we will wean him over a three month period so he will probably have it until at least mid-summer.

Pray he is still gaining weight. His last weight check he hadn't gone up at all, but hadn't gone down, so we will see. At some point if he continues to need it, we may have to consider more permanent options, but we are hoping to forgo that. We really feel if we can pinpoint the cause of the breathing problems and truly treat that, he will gain weight normally (well as normally as a kid with two parents who were sticks growing up would;).

He is sick, as he usually is, but hasn't been on antibiotics or oral steroids for two weeks, which is a miracle. If we can make it to summer and he can have longer periods of health, it should help too.

Beyond that he is doing well. He has taken a few steps and is always getting into something with his brother. They are quite a pair. Ethan does a good job of taking care of Jayden too. He sings him songs (like the Cars theme song) when we have to insert Jayden's tube to calm him down. It is very sweet.

Ethan has taken to calling himself Dr. Ethan and walks around with the stethoscope we have acquired and and syringes giving Jayden medicine and checking out how he sounds. Ethan also takes his baby around for walks after "coming home from the hospital" and imitates a lot of what is going on with Jayden. As far as child development goes, we encourage it because we know it is a good outlet for Ethan to express what is happening every day in his life and with his brother.

I am going to post some fun stuff in the next couple of days and when we actually hear news, we will post that as well.

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Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Some Test Results





We got back some results for Jayden yesterday. The GI specialists said the biopsies were generally normal. He had some gastritis in his stomach and some abnormal cells indicating a mild allergy in his lower bowels, but nothing too serious in the GI tract. We will have to wait a few weeks for the pulmonology results.

We still need to figure out what is causing the constant fluid in his lungs, but it does not look like he is aspirating from his reflux. Maybe the primary ciliary dyskenesis testing will tell us more. If it is inconclusive, they would like us to travel to North Carolina for more testing, but we are just taking it one step at a time.

The plan is to keep his tube in for at least a few more months and then, hopefully, he will be able to go without it. His synagis shots seem to be helping and he has only had to do the oral steroids a few times since winter began, which is too bad for him.

Truthfully as long as we can keep him relatively healthy, we're happy:). We are so grateful that his hospitalizations haven't been because he is in acute distress lately. Thanks for all the prayers - we really do appreciate them!

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Saturday, January 10, 2009

We're Home

We got to come home, but with the day being a very long day and a lot going on, we just kinda crashed so sorry for the late update. Jayden did really well overall. Here is what we know:

His right lung was very filled with fluid and mucus. It was the same problem he had last year, but this time it wasn't infected (probably due to the two months of strong antibiotics and intermittent oral steroids he's been on). It still shouldn't be there though, so we have to figure out why it is there.

They hoped to rule out primary ciliary dyskensis, which is essentially where the cilia in the lungs doesn't move the mucus through like it's supposed to. They couldn't because of the lung full of fluid, but sent a biopsy and should get test results either way in a few weeks.

The GI tract (stomach, intestines, colon) looked alright when they went in. They took samples that will tell them if his enzyme levels and vitamin levels are alright, but the tissue looked good.

The CT scan looked alright, but the doc only had a quick glance at it due to time and was going to look more closely this weekend.

The five biopsies they did in GI should be in result-wise in the middle of next week.

He's doing alright now. He's cranky and probably a bit uncomfortable but is at home, so that's good.

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Thursday, January 08, 2009

In Recovery

Yeah! He did better than they had hoped and we are now hanging out in recovery waiting for him to drink some and eat some and to make sure his oxygen levels are ok.

A lot of the test we will not have back for awhile. Except for a brief period during the lung biopsy, he did not have many additional breathing issues while he was out.

It looks like he did so well they have talked about letting him go home if he is ok without the oxygen, so that would be great since they were just going to keep an eye on him.

Thanks again for all the prayers and now we will just be waiting for more test results....

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In The OR

He's still in the operating room. He began about one and we just spoke with the pulmonologost. He is done and we are waiting now to hear from the GI specialists. The pulmonologist said his left lung was clear and right lung was full of fluid, but at least uninfected.

They got two good biopsies and are now doing the other five biopsies in his GI tract. The biopsy results will not be back for a few weeks. He said he initially got a quick scan of the CT and it looked ok, but he needed to go back and look at it more in-depth.

More info later:).

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Wednesday, January 07, 2009

First Round Completed

Today was our easy day - VERY easy day:). We did the milk scan which was just long, but not a big deal and met with anesthesiology. We are set for tomorrow and our hospital stay. It looks like Jayden will be put under for several hours to get everything done.

He begins at noon tomorrow (EST) and will likely end somewhere in the late afternoon time. We will not likely be in a room until mid evening. Depending on when we get information, I may post again in the afternoon, but definitely will after we get settled in his room.

The doctors are taking five or six biopsies when they go in tomorrow in different places. The biggest thing that's different is they don't tend to do this stuff on babies as young as Jayden, but then again he's not the typical baby:).

Anyway, all of your prayers are appreciated!

More soon....

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Sunday, January 04, 2009

Fun Around Newtown

I got to go out and take some pictures around Newtown yesterday. I figured I would post them on here to see how they display in the new format. Here are a few:

Our church's old building built in 1880.




An inn established in 1733.

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Testing - New Blog Look, Location

I am not sure my RSS feed is still linked to this, but had to change the location on my domain of my blog in order to add some fun, new features!

First of all, if you look to the left, you can add your email and get email updates if you want them. You have to verify your email by clicking on the link when you first sign up, so make sure to do that:). For all those on the list who automatically get this emailed to them, I will sign you up for the updates. I am not sure it will go to the entire listserve and if you don't want them, just don't click the link.

You can also see the YouTube videos from the left-hand column. I am sure I will add more features later, but my goal was to get this up and running. Now I will check out if the RSS feed is still working and if not, publish something on that as well - although it may be tomorrow because I have to rework the XML coding.

You can find us at http://blog.mamasangels.org

The RSS feed has also changed - I tried to keep it, but blogger won't allow me to still use it. The new RSS feed is http://blog.mamasangels.org/rss.xml . The atom one is disabled.

Love,

me

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