The How

I wanted to post another picture of Faith's wide mouthed smile from the past week and post a "how did we get from here ____ to here-_____." But I did not bring my camera.

It's really not as sudden as it seems.

From the day her ET tube was pulled (4 days post-surgery) Faith struggled to breathe. Initially it was thought to be secretions that she just needed to clear. Brian and I both knew there was more to her breathing issues than that.

Where things were left after the last post was if her breathing worsened or did not get better to call the doc. Well, things did not get better. We spent last Sunday in the ED, but were told there was really nothing they could do. A few days later our ENT put her on a high dose of Decadron (steroids) as a last resort. After three days of steroids Faith showed no improvement.

When I got home from work yesterday Faith was gasping for air. After speaking with our ENT she gave us the go head to drive her to the emergency department. As we strapped Faith into her car seat her breaths became shorter and she started turning blue (hence, the 911 call and ambulance ride).

Once at Children's they bronched her and discovered that her airway looked even worse than the swollen pictures from last week (the one in the middle from my previous post). *insert big sigh here* The ENT could not believe how good Faith looked prior to the bronch because the evidence showed a severely swollen airway and how she was breathing through it was unbelievable.

Prior to the bronch the hope was the docs could dilated (balloon) her airway once again. The consesues was the current state of her airway is beyond ballooning. The word "dynamic" was used to describe her airway- something we have heard before.

So that's where we stand today. Faith is intubated and on a ventilator. She is on numerous meds/sedatives and is strapped to the bed.

Not sure where we go from here. The current plan is to give her a "chill out" period where she does nto have to work to breathe. On Monday our ENT will do another bronch.

The "T" word has been thrown around a lot.

While Faith was in surgery last night I said to Brian, "I don't know what's worse- Faith coming out with a trach or keeping things the way they are and not receiving any answers."

Intubation is neither of those things, but it's definitely not where we expected to be.

At this point I am relieved that Faith is not struggling to breathe. It was a very confusing and uncomfortable week watching her work so hard to breathe.

Thank you for keeping little Faithers in your prayers,

Jen & CO.