Status Update, 4/22

William is still at Children's Medical Center, but he appears to be on the tail end of his illness. As it turns out, he had bronchiolitis (which was the result of a common cold virus) and aspiration pneumonia (which was likely due to the bronchiolitis and/or the cold). He hasn't had fever for a couple of days, and he's barely on any oxygen at all right now. They'll be weaning him off of oxygen today and if all goes as planned, he'll be back at Our Children's House tomorrow.

John-Raven did not have his surgery this week because (surprise!) he's come down with basically the same thing that William has. Thankfully, OCH was prepared for it following William's episode and have been able to stop John-Raven's problems from escalating.

At this point, the G-tube surgeries will be delayed by a few weeks. After the boys respiratory distress this week, any anesthesiologist would be hesitant to put them under until a proper length of time has passed.

So the plan right now is: get William back to OCH, get set up with temporary NG-tubes, go home, and then come back to Dallas in a few weeks for the G-tube surgeries. I'll let you know if the plan changes. (Judging by recent events, I wouldn't be surprised if it does.)

Also, to clarify: I've been referring to a G-tube, but actually, the boys will be getting what's called a Mic-Key button. For those who don't know, the Mic-Key button is simply a small, low profile valve that is placed in the stomach to create a feeding port. When it's time to feed, you connect the feeding tube to the button. When feeding is done, the tube is disconnected. (Sometimes, a G-tube is used for a couple of weeks before transitioning to the button, but our surgeon may actually just put the button in right away. We'll see.)