The Results

Tucker's scoping went fine. He was so good today. His gas this morning was 140-WAY high! So they moved his rate up to 60 and his pressure up to 60. He was very well-behaved while he was poked all up for blood work. As long as he had his paci, he was fine. The doctor found that Tucker has a floppy airway which makes it very hard for air to get into his lungs. The vent has to push very hard to get his airway to open up, and then when it opens, all of the air rushes in at once-then after a second, it shuts right back off. So his breathing is not working the way it should-it's a mechanical problem. Once he gets the oxygen in, his body can take it and use it-it's just not getting in there really well. Dr. Thomas said he just has to grow out of it-so, more waiting. He said we'll shoot for having Tucker home for Christmas-but, we'll see. They also put in a thicker trach tube-so his leak is gone. So more oxygen is getting in-his rate went down from 60 to 50. But he is going to be upset when he wakes up and realizes he can not cry or talk to us. He was getting so good at it! Because his trach tube is so thick, I can't change it until they open his stoma a little more. His stoma is the opening for the trach. If I tried, I might push too hard or something-the Dr said he had a hard time getting it in-it's a little snug. Dr. Thomas is very nice. He answered all of our questions-well, the ones he knew the answers to. The main one: "when is he coming home?" no one knows that! He asked "Tucker, when will you be ready to come home?" Well, he didn't answer, so I guess it's a surprise.