New findings

Hi to all,

Dustin is doing very well all considering. He had a good day in the critical care unit which he likes much better. All nurses are RN's and are very professional. He is also secure in getting immediate care when he needs it.It is also much quieter and he is able to get a lot of rest.

The temporary tube they have in place is not as precarious as they first let on and they did do wound dressing on his bedsore as well as turn him to clean him up.

The ENT doctor called tonight after I left with results from the CT scan. They have decided that this scar tissue in his trach has been there a very long time, perhaps from birth. With the aggrevation of the trach tube and all of the suctioning and broncoscopy, the scar tissue has increased causing the closure of the airway. The doctor says it will take several surgeries to get his airway stable. What they plan to do is go in again next Tues and lasar out some of the scar tissue and replace the temporary trach with the longer permanent one (one that bypasses the scar tissue. After 2 more weeks, they will go back in and repeat this until the airway is stable and open.

This really has nothing to do with the continual problem of the collapsed lung filled with fluid although it does prevent thorough suctioning and deep "bronch's. They have done 2 bronch's in the last 3 days and after they remove a lot of mucous etc, it collapses again. They cultured some of the mucous and so far (it takes several days) they have identified a few "rare" bacteria. They will grow it out a bit more and decide the best antibiotic. I am trying to find out they name of the rare bacteria so I can research it.

Rick went back today to make sure pipes don't freeze, get me some more clothes and warmer ones (12 degrees tomorrow), wash clothes, pick my few brussel sprouts in the garden and bring me some of our our new meat from our own cow. (This is a first for me). He had made a beef roast, washed our sheets and hung them out for my favorite smell etc for when I was supposed to come home this past Sunday. Oh well, we will have leftovers in our motel room with 2 dogs breathing down our necks. It will be fun!!

Dustin and I had a fun day discussing his "service monkey" he wants to get (check it out on the internet) and training it to push the buttons on his movie camera as well as scratch his ever itching face. We also have fun with a calender we got him with questions taken from "Are you smarter than a fifth grader?". Dustin is always interested in a variety of interesting things and this has been an easy way to keep our brains stimulated and laugh as well. He also want to open a cereal bar franchise he saw on TV that has started in California. He is breathing so much better but is in pain from not being able to move much and a different bed than he had. They plan to get him his air bed tomorrow to help with bedsores and rotation.

We will keep you posted as best as we can. Yesterday Rick and I went to a fun movie called Appaloosa at the $1.98 movie theater. It was a nice break and we always enjoy westerns. Tomorrow night there is a Christian concert at the local "James Brown" Arena. We may try to go just to break up the days activities.

Hope all is well for all
mary pat