What a Saturday….

Joshua had a busy day….
1. He was evicted from the ECMO room (V.I.P) and was put in the pod with all the other kiddos.
2. His milk was taken away because he was vomiting too much last night.
3. He was put on the scale for another weight in.
4. Joshua took his first sponge bath and cried the entire time. Since he has the oxygen tube we can’t hear him cry but see his facial expression.

Tomorrow he might get his oxygen tube removed. If so, we hope to hear him cry for the first time.

More good news......(11-20-09)

Joshua continues to drink (milk) and poop all day. Our doctor told us some great news today, she said that the oxygen tubes might be remove on Sunday. Joshua is more aware of his surroundings and has gained weight (7lb 2oz). The only concern that we have is the possibility of Joshua choking on his vomit. We are watching him very closely, and making sure he is being taken care of. He does have a nurse, but now that he is doing better he has to share his nurse to another baby. The plan for the following week is feeding him more milk, and making sure his lungs work properly without the ventilator. The doctors want Joshua out of NICU level 3 by the end of this month, and then place him in NICU level 2. Hopefully Joshua will come home by Christmas, and he can finally meet friends, family and his big brother KODY.

Today was one of our "BEST DAYS EVER" (11-19-09)

Joshua has been pooping more and more today, after 11 days we (mommy & daddy) finally got to change his first dirty dipper. It was so exciting for us but at the same time scary, he still has wires on him that make us a little nervous.
The doctors did not expect Joshua to get to his next step till the middle of next week (“maybe Thanksgiving” doctors said) but since they saw that he is doing so good they decided to go ahead and let him taste a little of my breast milk. They are starting off with a very small amount in his feeding tube every 3 hours, Joshua was not able to digest all of the milk but they said he did well for his first day of feeding.
Today was also his first day back on a scale since he was born! It was a big deal for him since he had not left his bed ever since he was put on there in the delivery room; his surgery was even on his same bed. Joshua’s weight did go up slightly, and its way better than going down since a lot of babies in the hospital usually lose weight, not Joshua he is still holding strong!
Tonight was the first night that we left Joshua’s bed site at a decent time (10:00pm). We usually stay with him till at least 2:00am. Since he has been doing so good for the past couple of days and his two favorite doctors (Dr. Cho & Dr. Rios) are in this evening and watching over him we felt at ease to turn in early. We pray that tomorrow will be just as good as today!
Joshy’s Mommy

Mommy Update (Dad is resting)

I know a lot of you have been asking Jose about my condition, and I am doing great. I am still a little sore but nothing half as bad as what Joshua must be feeling (with his little battle scar). His numbers were great today, the doctors told us they are better then what they expected. They are very surprised on how good he is doing based on how bad they expected him to be when he was first born. ECMO is almost out of the question, the doctors are already discussing about taking us out of the critical room (“V.I.P Room” Daddy likes to say) and putting Joshua in the pod with all the other kiddos. So… that’s a good thing, if we move out that is just one step further to going home. JOSHUA DID POOP! Maybe not so exciting news for everyone but for us this is WONDERFUL NEWS! Today is his 10th day in the world and his first day to poop, this is a big step for us.
The only bad news the doctors just gave us this evening was about visitors. The doctors informed us for the next couple of days they would recommend us to keep Joshua to minimum visitors of immediate family members only, since he is still recovering from surgery. I know some of you are waiting as I myself can’t wait for you to meet Joshua, but I will give you the A-Okay as soon as the doctors clear him to have more visitors.
I am very thankful to have so many friends and family members who care so much about me and my new little bundle of joy. Thank you so much for all of the prayers we are receiving from everyone and we ask them to please continue.
Joshy’s Mommy

Joshua......

Joshua continues to recover from the surgery......

Post Surgery- 48 hours

Joshua is still asleep, and we are just waiting for the meeting ...

Post-Surgery- 26 hours

At this mornings meeting the neonatologist stated that Joshua should continue to be paralyzed until tomorrow morning to give his body more time to recover. She also said that the numbers (blood pressure, Heart rate….) looks good but she still does not want to rush into the next step (waking him up).
The plan is that Joshua will wake up tomorrow and hopefully breathe very softly to his re-position lungs. The concern they have is that Joshua might do the opposite and wake up breathing very heavily. That is a concern because it can cause damage to his artificial patch (is what is separating his organs apart).

At this moment (1:18pm) Joshua’s results are great….they are now reviewing his echocardiogram (heart x-ray) to determine if his heart is working properly.

Happy Birthday Joshua -1 week old 8:08pm

Joshua did great during surgery, and that was a huge step for his road to recovery. They manage to move all his intestines, stomach, spleen and part of his liver back into his stomach (he has a belly like me now (jose)). The surgeon also realized that one of his lungs is bigger than expected. The nurses that have worked with CDH babies said it’s amazing how well he is doing after surgery. Joshua is still in a critical condition because of the major surgery.
Joshua will still have some more steps before he comes home. At this moment he is “paralyze”(sleeping) until tomorrow morning. This will help him recover and let his body adjust to the new positions of his internal organs. Our neonatologist stated that this is a new Joshua, and this is the beginning of his recovery. The doctors, nurse and surgeons want Joshua to take small steps every day. Joshua will have a challenging day tomorrow…..but so far he has been a champ.

This has been a blessing day…..thanks to family, friends and co-workers for all your prayers.


(this picture was taken after surgery)

Surgery is over....WENT GREAT!!!

Joshua is out of surgery and everything is looking good....

Surgery is on...

Surgery will proceed this morning at 8:30am. It's a 2-3 hour procedure, this will be Joshua's biggest step to recovery. The surgeon and nurse warned us that it's the worse step, and Joshua will be very sick for the first 24-48 hours.

He has been a champ, the surgeon was amazed that he was just on 26-28 % oxygen from the ventilator this morning. The throat infection that was brought to our attention last night is a minor detail that will not affect the surgery.

Infection.....

Late this evening we were notified that Joshua has an infection in his throat. The cause of this infection was due to the tubes inserted into his lungs and stomach.He is still on antibiotics but surgery MIGHT be delayed. We will find out tomorrow morning. The doctor mentioned that the infection is not in the blood, so it cannot spread. The throat infection usually gets better after 7-10 days using antibiotics. The doctor can not comment about the surgery until the neonatologist, surgeons and other specialist discuss this situation in the morning.

Joshua sleeping all day....

Good news....Joshua has improve and so far no infection was detected from the culture blood test (3:26PM). His temperature remains the same, but it's nothing to be concern. The extra air from his stomach and intestines has decrease.He has been sleeping all day, and looks more relax compared to yesterday. He had another blood transfusion today, and he didn't have any reactions. Everything looks great, so hopefully the surgeons look over his condition and proceed with the repair surgery tomorrow.
Melissa has been released from St.Lukes, so we are now staying at the Ronald McDonald Home. It's located in Texas Children Hospital by the NICU room where Joshua is staying at. Thank you for all the positive comments, emails and text messages.

Joshua's still hanging in there....

Joshua’s temperature has improved since yesterday, from 99.0 to 98.5. Our nurse indicated that the temperature is better but he will still be on antibiotics. Some of Joshua’s results came back, and the flu, and other infection test came back negative. His white blood cells (fights infections) came back normal. We are still waiting for one more test tomorrow (Sunday) to determine if he has any other type of infection. Joshua also had a problem today regarding having too much air in his stomach and intestines. After making some changes with his tubes in his stomach, some air was released. They will continue to monitor this situation throughout the night. Also, Joshua has been trying to grab the tubes from his mouth all day, and has been very active. The doctor recommended that he will be given more drugs to sedate him. Overall the doctor stated he is doing just fine but yesterday (Friday) was better.