Christmas

Strauss Christmas

Waiting to open presents

Little man is having a blast

Merry Christmas!

Brothers dressed together

Hudson

Big Bear Brunch

Decorating!

Walking with the boys

Brothers hanging out in the tub

Halloween pumpkin carving!!

Pinata expoding

Neighbors

Ethan at Ashleys soccer practice

Taylor Swift!!

Home

All, we have been discharged from the hospital. We spent last night in the ICU and Ethan was wide awake the entire night. The next morning, we were moved to the general recovery floor. After they monitored Ethan's eating and drinking and our general readiness to be home, they let us go. Thanks for all the prayers everyone. It is time for some sleep.

Night night

Ethan

The extubation is so far a success! We have a few hours to ensure his airways don't swell.

Final hurdles

We had a peaceful night. Ethan has his days and nights mixed so he was alert and quiet for 2 hours last night. We looked at old pictures, I showed him different things around the room and he held onto his bat the whole time. This morning, he passed his extubation preparation test so the docs are finishing rounds then they plan to cut his sedation. After 30 minutes, they are going to give the extubation a shot. If it works they are going to closely monitor for 24 hours then we move to general recovery. Fingers crossed.

Update

All, we take one step forward and then 2 steps back. Unfortunately Ethan failed his breathing test today as he became too weak after 4 hours on his own. They are going to try again tomorrow. The second step back is the uncovering of a bacterial infection in his lungs. He is already on antibiotics. We need prayers and they need to be strong like bull.

Ethan and Avery

I want to get back to these times. This was 3 weeks ago with his cousin Avery. They miss each other.

Update

Big E is continuing to make progress. At 4am they switched the ventilator to a support mode where it allows him to take all the breathes (compensates for the small tube) and is there for backup. He has been doing great since the switch. There is still a lot of stuff in his lungs that needs suctioned every few hours from the virus but this is expected. They are aiming for removal of the tube tomorrow. Fingers crossed.

Welcome to our home for the past 4 days

The tongue is healing!

Update

Big E had a rough night. He is still on the ventilator but is pretty heavily sedated. He wakes every so often and starts to panic, choke and tries to scream. It is just awful. The fluid in his lungs from the virus is requiring treatments every 2 hours. Good news is that the tongue is slowly shrinking so we are hopeful the removal of the ventilation tube tomorrow. Need prayers.

Ethan Status

Sorry for the graphic picture everyone but we ran into some complications after the surgery. This was taken about 10 minutes ago and he is looking much better than the pictures from 2 days ago. To give a background, Ethan had his palate closure surgery on Tuesday morning. After the surgery, his tongue swelled up significantly enough to necessitate an emergency intubation. He was moved to the pediatric ICU and was sedated and put on paralytics for the ventilator. Unfortunately, it looks like he picked up or brought with him some type of virus so he has some junk in his lungs and nose. About an hour ago, they removed him off the paralytics so he has started moving. What we need now are prayers for a) the tongue to stop swelling so we can get the ventilator removed and b) heal the virus from his lungs / body. Thanks all.

Surgery today

Ethan going into surgery for palate repair

Ethan playing in the mist

Even higher

High flier

New ball pit

First day of school

Ashley is now in 3rd grade and Aidan is in 1st grade. Crazy how fast time flies.