Friday Afternoon - A Josiah Update

Hey Ya'll

This won't be eloquant or pretty since I'm kind of crammed for time and want to head back to Josiah's room since I'm pretty sure he's going to wake up soon.

Josiah was put into isolation again yesterday with the precaution that he might be sick again. Yesterday morning his aspirate and nose boogers were green (bad colour!), but today they are more creamy (yet still thick, sticky, and frequent - probably stuff you don't really want to hear!) Anyways, I keep commenting to Marie that this is the best sick I've ever seen him. The aspirate test came back negative and so the doctors are waiting for his virus results. Josiah does seem to be a little more irritable as of late (crying more, clammy, etc) but he's still teething - a second tooth is popping up! - which can easily account for that stuff.

Josiah has had 2 major spells this week (yesterday and the day before) and both seem to be secretion related (imagine waking up and finding you can't breathe because you have a gluey substance in your throat - good reason to freak out!). He's been really good today and even though he woke up upset because of secretions, he cried hard without going into a d-sat and we were able to get his airway clear with minimal instil (we sometimes have to place a few drops of saline into his airway if it is clogged or sticky to help him clear it out). The last couple of mornings there were moments where it was difficult to pass the suction cathader through his trache (blockage, stickiness) but today we had no such problems.

Josiah's spine situation seems to be getting worse. As mentioned before, he has what appears to be a humpback with scoliosis. The OT confirmed that it was getting worse than her last look at it a few weeks ago, and so we hope in the near future someone will be able to come up with something for Josiah. He's going to be a bit of a pioneer again because the youngest patient they have ever treated for back issues was a 1 year-old (it usually takes a while to back issues to be obvious), so we're not sure what the next few months will hold in that area.

It was amazing, though, to see how much better his complexion and ability to breathe radically improved when he receives back support. Basically, with his spine the way it is nice now, Josiah is always scrunched over when he is sat up and is unable to fully open up his lungs/diaphram. But when supported properly (a couple of hands placed firmly on his back) he becomes more alert, has better colour in his cheeks, and breathes without difficulty. So cool, but so odd that we have never noticed until now.

Josiah is certainly smiling more and I'm pretty sure it's because he loves mommy's laugh. He gets these incredibly squinty eyes and huge mouth when he goes into a smile - SO CUTE!

There's probably more that I have neglected to add, but I think it's time for me to go. Thanks to our visitors who popped by this week: Jen H. & Alice (I hope I remembered you names correctly!) and Leanne K. & Miranda E.

In God's Peace.
- Andrew, Marie & Josiah