June 18, 2006

Zachary has had to make a number of adjustments recently to both his trach and the ventilator. Once he was relatively stable on the hospital vent, they ordered the vent he'll come home with and he's still trying to adjust to that. His CO2 has been anywhere from 58 to 112. Most recently he's had higher CO2 numbers and slightly increased oxygen needs. They are sending a tracheal aspirate to the lab to check for infection. Our hope is that he just needs some time to stabilize. We've been doing our best to take in all of the information and especially to learn the procedures we'll need to know when Zach comes home. There's a lot to learn but in time we'll get more comfortable with it.

Zach has been tolerating his feeds a bit better but has not been interested in taking a bottle. He will probably have a gastrostomy tube (g-tube) surgically placed sometime within the next couple of weeks. A g-tube is placed through the stomach wall directly into the stomach and is an alternate method for feeding when he won't take the bottle. This will take the place of the NG tube which goes through his nose and down into his stomach. He is still growing and currently weighs over 11 lbs.

Once Zachary is stable with his feeds, has proven to be stable on the ventilator for a period of time, and we feel comfortable with our ability to care for him, he will come home. It's still difficult to know when that will be but we're starting to prepare our home for him. We think he'll enjoy it here much more than his corner in the NICU.

Thanks again for reading. We love you!