Tough Cookie

Hudson is now 3 months old and still fighting! Last week he had another bronchoscopy to reevaluate the airway. The trachea looked nice and open (no evidence of granuloma/scar tissue)...so that is some good news!! On the other hand, they are still concerned with the healing in the distal airway (at the carina) where a patch was used to widen his right main stem bronchus..the patch is floppy and causing some obstruction..so they used a balloon to try and dilate this area and will look back in the airway tomorrow to reevaluate with the cardiothoracic surgeon. Hudson is still weaning off IV narcotics and 5 liters of oxygen but doing well with all the changes. The feeding tube is in his stomach now and he is tolerating his feeds pretty well with slow changes every couple of days. Hudson has now tried to suck from a bottle 4 or 5 times and this has been quite a challenge for him. He has never taken milk/formula by mouth and the swallowing phase of eating is going to take some time and work. Speech therapy feels that he has the sucking skills he just doesn't know what to do once there is something to swallow and it frightens him. Mommy and daddy are trying to work with him but know that this will be a slow process and it is highly likely that we will go home with a feeding tube but that is ok...Hudson will do it when he is ready!! He is growing well...weighing about 11 1/2 lbs now and continuing to get stronger! More to come after bronchoscopy today.