Round 3

This Week
It has been a fun week to have everyone at home, trying to settle in with a new baby in the house. As the week progressed, however, Faith has been developing some noisy breathing. Initially Ashley and I were not concerned. We thought that this was just typical baby noise, but as the week went on, when she was agitated, Faith's breathing became more laborious and unusual. Friday night Ashley's brother Tyler (an ENT doctor) took a look at Faith's airway with a scope. He diagnosed faith with Laryngomalacia. Laryngomalacia is a condition which the muscle tissue around her voice box does not withstand heavy breathing and collapses as she breathes harder. Tyler said that many infants with this condition are just told to wait until they grow out of it as long as there oxygen levels remain stable, they continue to eat, and gain weigh. Faith was doing all three so we went home with the intent of taking her to Children's Mercy on Monday for a closer look.

Friday Night
Over night Faith's condition seemed to worsen she was starting to fight for air all the time, not just while she was agitated, and she was harder to calm. This morning around 8:00 during one of her episodes her oxygen saturation began to drop. We didn't waste any time. I hopped in the van with Faith to go to Stormont ER while Ashley stayed at home with the kids. Halfway to the hospital Faith calmed down and her oxygen saturation levels returned to normal. We made the decision to turn around, pick up Ashley and head for the Children's Mercy ER.

Good ol' Children's Mercy
Like always Children's Mercy has been great. Tyler called ahead and spoke with the ENT about his findings on Friday night, which definitely sped the diagnosis process up in the ER. Thanks Ty! The ENT took a look at her airway with a scope and decided that while it was possible that her Laryngomalacia was causing her breathing issues, he wanted to consult the Neurosurgeon to rule out brain stem compression causing her vocal cords to be weak. The Neurosurgeon feels that this is highly unlikely, but is performing an MRI on Faith tonight to be sure.

Over the next few days we are going to put faith on a stronger reflux medication to see if this reduces what could be swelling in her airway. If this works, problem solved, we go home. If this does not work there is a minor surgery that can be formed to free up space in her airway. We hope that it does not come to that. Time will tell.

Thanks for your prayers