More hurdles

Hudson is now 10 weeks old and holding strong in the CVICU. The past week has been one of the tougher weeks during his long journey to recovery. Last week his feeding tube was pulled to his stomach for the first time. This was quite an adjustment for Hudson and after several changes to his feeding regimen, a visit from the gastrointestinal team and time he began to tolerate his feeds. Over the weekend his valium was lowered more and he was down to a vapotherm level of 3...all huge steps!! Monday we met with the ICU physician and had scheduled a care conference to meet with all the physicians, nurses, therapists, surgeons...etc..to come up with a plan to move him up to the recovery floor. Then came monday evening. Hudson became very agitated, unconsolable and began to show signs of respiratory distress.....mommy started to notice that he seemed to be gasping for air. Yesterday morning..after a long 2 days of trying to keep Hudson comfortable the ICU team, ENT surgeons and cardiothoracic surgeons felt that it was urgent for Hudson to go back into the OR for a bronchoscopy to see what was going on within his airway. After 2 hours in the OR, Hudson returned to his ICU room intubated once again (on the ventilator). The ENT surgeon found a granuloma (mass of scar tissue) obstructing 90% of Hudson's trachea. He was surprised by the size of the granuloma and said that he has never quite seen a case like Hudson's before... After long discussion with the ENT surgeon as well as the ICU team, it was decided that the safer option for Hudson was to leave him intubated to rest his airway. Yesterday was a hard day...not only did Hudson have to go back to the OR.....but he was stuck over 10 times for IV access and extremely uncomfortable and scared. He was hit with multiple narcotics once again which did not seem to work as effectively as in the past. Sweet boy!!! This morning Hudson lost his IV due to all the kicking and irritability overnight (his IV was in his foot because this was the only place they could get one in)...his central line was pulled over a week ago so he had no IV access... Currently, Hudson is intubated, on IV steroids and narcotics and scheduled to go back in for a new PICC line (IV) in the morning..uugghh They have also pushed his feeding tube back into his small intestine...no more stomach feeding for now..and the ICU team plans to try and extubate him tomorrow afternoon. It is amazing what a strong little boy Hudson has proved to be and his mommy and daddy are so very proud of all the hurdles and challenges he has overcome...he is such a fighter!!! Please keep Hudson in your thoughts and prayes as he continues to push through these difficult times. More to come.