Cautiously Optimistic

I hate to even think like this. I mean, it goes against everything I’ve learned so far in our nearly SIX WEEK STAY at this hospital.

But… I’m really starting to feel kinda hopeful.

Jack had a bronchial scope on Wednesday to look at his airway. I was terrified this would end in the worst possible outcome: he would need a tracheotomy (when they put a shunt in his airway and he would have a tube coming out of his throat). His main doctor, as well as the pulmonologist (or, “the lung guy,” as he calls himself– he has an uncanny resemblance to John Slattery), assured me that probably wouldn’t be the case.

Yeah, no one mentioned the possibility of a permanent feeding tube when they did his swallow study, either. They were all, “Oh, if he’s aspirating, we can just thicken his feeds and everything will be hunky dory!”

Liars.

So, needless to say, my hands were wringing as they came to tell us the results. But, THANK YOU, UNIVERSE, he actually needs no medical intervention for his airway.

Now, that doesn’t mean there isn’t a small complication in there. Would it really be Jackson if there wasn’t something wrong? The smooth muscle at the back of his airway is slightly bowed, making it just a tad more difficult for air to pass through. But, since his oxygen level is top notch, and his breathing isn’t labored, they believe this is something he will grow out of as his body matures.

His lungs are healing from whatever hell they went through while he was on the ventilator from surgery. His breaths have come down from the 90s to the 70s. His reflux (cross your fingers) seems to have gone away. His G-button and hernia surgery sites have healed well, and feeding him through his tube isn’t so bad.

Could it be… are we on the path to head home, soon?

DON’T DIRECTLY THINK ABOUT IT. It’s quite skittish.