Update day 2

Today was a pretty busy day for Dillon here at CHOP. He was NPO (no food) most of the night/day. They took him around 1:30 for a chest CT scan. That came back showing more trees according to the resident.

Then they took him for a milk scan that was supposed to be 1 hour 5 minutes and it took 2 hours and 15 minutes. Thankfully, Haddie and I were with him the whole time. He was coughing so hard during it that they had to keep changing the bedding underneath him. They also had to keep cleaning their cameras because if the radioactive stuff got on a camera it could break it! The guy was teasing that we are going to get a bigger big for all the laundry Dillon was making but can you imagine if he broke their camera!!?? :o)

The problem was they were seeing the radioactive material on the bed and it would look like it was in him. But this meant that he was coughing up the radioactive material....not good. The test results came back that he is refluxing and aspirating his milk. Not good again. I guess we will be talking with the doctor tomorrow to see what we need to do for the reflux/aspirations. I am not sure if treating the reflux will solve the aspiration problem or if he will still be aspirating on just his secretions. He should not be able to reflux if his nissen was still in place - but we won't know about that until tomorrow when they do an upper GI. Blah.

They also had me sign the paperwork tonight for taking him to the OR tomorrow afternoon for the scope. I still remember the first time I had to sign papers for a surgery for him. It was to place a broviac when he was just a few days old. I don't know how many I have signed since, but it still is always a chilling moment as I sign my permission for them to take him into the OR, put him under, and breathe for him so they can do something to his body that shouldn't have to be done to any little boy. But - God is good and every time he has handled the anesthesia well. The plan will be to remove the breathing tube right away unless they feel he has swelling and needs it to be left in longer.

From what I have read about this cast or plastic bronchitis we are blessed beyond measure that he has not been in a life and death situation with it, especially with all his medical issues. He is a fighter, he is so strong to have coughed these "rubber like" things up. We are blessed that, even though it is extremely rare, his doctor had seen it before and knew what it was right away and knew what actions needed to be taken to ensure his safety.

Thank you Lord for answering my prayers. After he coughed something up the first time, his nurse and I were talking and I said "Let's just pray that if it is something serious he will cough something up again so we can figure this out." Literally 2 hours later he coughed up the bronchial trees! We both knew right then that something wasn't right because it was clearly an answer to my prayer! So although it is not fun to be here and I miss my boys terribly, I am thankful for friends that are so kind to watch them, and for doctors who are doing their best to figure out the cause as well as the solution.... but I still can't wait to get home!!! :o)