Road Bumps Not Road Blocks

Earlier today Gwendolyn had a chest x-ray. The concern is that her congestion is spreading to her lungs. There are conflicting opinions on that issue. Some nurses listened and felt it was still just confined to her head and there was no issue... but the nurse practitioner was very concerned that is started to spread down into her lungs. If so, they'll obviously need to address the situation before it gets too serious. We still haven't heard back on the results or know exactly what the course of action will be if it has spread into her lungs but hopefully it won't regress the process at all.



We had a consult with plastics again today. It sounds as though getting home by Thanksgiving has become a pipe dream. Still, that isn't because of a problem that's popped up. Given her last jaw scan, the doctor is confident that Gwen can be extended to the duration of the device. The positive part about that is if they can extend the devise to its fullest setting, they can eliminate a followup jaw extension procedure when Gwen's in her teen years. So, if in fact we do extend Gwen's jaw to the max, it means we are really only a third of the way through the process as opposed to being at the halfway point. Luckily, according to scans there already seems to be a widening of Gwen's airway so hopefully this procedure is working like I feel it has started to.

Gwen did get a bottle feeding in the morning with the occupational therapist. She downed about 20-ccs in pretty quick time. The good news is that there didn't seem to be moments where she held her breath or spit the formula out as she tried to breathe and eat at the same time. The bad news is that she did seem to be making some of her old noises that aren't what you'd label "normal." Still, all-in-all the o.t. was pleased with her "suck level." Of course, had she watched Gwen attack her binky, she would have known that her suck has never been an issue.

;)

But seriously, they will continue to work with her on small feedings until she's fully done with her jaw extension, at which time they'll complete the swallow study. Hopefully she'll get better and better as things progress.

Well, I'll keep you posted on everything... BTW, how pretty does Gwen look with that yellow bow in her hair?!?!?!