The Journey of James Weston

Wednesday, February 9th, 2022 Today was a busy day. In the morning our Medicaid Case Manager stopped by. This is usually a monthly call with Mom, but this was the first time she could come in-person. We went over all of the upcoming appointments, changes to medications, and any issues with the home health staffing. Not really possible to do with the nurse in the room. James was charming as usual. Then we received a visit from Uncle Doctor David. He came bearing Christmas gifts, bringing us giant tubs of baby formula which we can always use! James lit up to see a new face. He is very social! Shortly after we had physical therapy appointment and James had a workout on the floor. Embarrassing enough the PT ended up just spending a lot of time helping James release gas. He was in a lot of pain.  In the evening Dad played guitar after trach care and then we enjoyed our new Disney+ subscription. Can you guess which movie we watched? Hint: "The ocean is calling". P.S. Do you follow ...

Update on James' progress! February has been great so far! The 1st week his Pulmonologist decreased his ventilator settings from a PEEP of 10 to 8! Normal PEEP is at a 5. The next wean would be to 6 and then 5. For perspective, James was at a 16 PEEP in the NICU so this is a great improvement! Since peep has a whole new meaning these days, this is what I'm talking about...PEEP is the pressure in the lungs at the end of each breath, holding your lungs open. PEEP prevents your lungs from completely emptying and collapsing. If your lungs collapsed there would be incomplete inflation on the next breath and reduced oxygenation. To learn more, feel free to use the search bar at the top of our blog. AND this past week James had a bronchoscopy done (a very small camera that looks down his trachea) and his tracheomalacia has healed. This means no more flappy airway. His trachea is stable! This means we can use standard trachs and don't have to worry about insurance not approving cus...