April 5, 2006

We need to apologize again for the slow update to the weblog, but we have had a lot going on this week. First, an update on Zachary. We have seen slow and steady progress over the last couple of days. Zachary's oxygen requirements have been dropping over the last couple of weeks from an average of 60% to now constantly being in the 35-40% range, (by way of comparison room air is 21% oxygen) so we are getting closer. In addition, they have been slowly weaning the other vent settings. Unfortunately, the doctors still don't think he is making enough of an improvement at this point. Zachary's weight dropped down to 6 lbs. 15 oz. (signifying that he finally had lost all the extra fluid weight he was carrying) but is now back up to 7 lbs. 3 oz.

Zach has finished his antibiotics for the Serratia (which is really just his second bout of pneumonia) and they will test him today to ensure the bug is truly gone. The doctors have told us that his breathing tube is an open path for infection to enter his body and this will continue to happen since he isn't strong enough to fight it off, but we are hoping we can keep him infection free for a little while to allow him to make some more progress.

Zach will be making his fifth trip to surgery this week (Monday) in order to repair a fairly sizeable hernia that has developed. It looks really painful to us, but the doctors have assured us that it isn't bothering him. The doctors want to get the hernia repaired before we extabate (remove the breathing tube) Zachary so they don't have to put him through that process again. The timing for extabation is not in any of Zachary's doctors sights, but while we have this window of no infection they want to get this surgery done.

The current plan is that unless Zachary makes some miraculous steps forward over the next few days, the doctors will begin the steroid treatments following the hernia surgery. At this point, the doctors still think that a tracheostomy is still very likely in order to allow Zach to learn to eat normally while still providing the ventilation support they think he will continue to need.

Changing gears, Tieryn's surgery took place on Tuesday. To quote the doctor "it couldn't have gone better." The doctors were able to remove the entire uterus and placenta without any damage to the bladder or other internal organs. The blood loss between Tieryn's two suregeries was less than a normal C-section (which is a miracle in itself). Tieryn is now recovering and will most likely be in the hospital until sometime this weekend. Tieryn's doctor pulled some strings to let her stay on her old floor at the hospital where all the nurses know us and Zacahary is right down the hall. We are so grateful that this part of our family situation looks to be behind us and know we couldn't have done it without all of you. Tieryn really looks forward to being back to normal (not having to worry all the time about bleeding or infection) and being allowed to be alone once in a while again. Tieryn is counting the days until she can jump on the trampoline with the kids again.

We say this everytime, but don't think we will ever be able to say it enough, how grateful we are to all of you for your prayers and your support during the past eight monts. We know we still have a long road ahead of us with Zachary, but feel we can thankfully close the book on one of the challenges we have been dealing with for quite a while. We can now focus all of our attention on getting our little guy healthy and strong and bringing him home to be with our family. We thank all of you again for all that you do.

We love you,

Greg, T, Hailey, Clayton, and Zachary