No News is Good News!

We're in the midst of a rather quiet weekend here in 7C. I "officially" moved into Chase's room on Thursday so I could be here for all of his bottle feedings, which worked out perfectly since he has excelled at the bottle thing and pretty much went straight to full feeds and eliminated tube feeds from the get-go. What an incredible blessing!!!

So I have to tell you something that I've been waiting to say for a L-O-N-G time (33 days, to be exact): During rounds this morning, the "D" word was finally mentioned to us! That's right!

Discharge!!!

There is a REALLY good chance -- assuming Chase has a quiet, boring weekend -- that we will be discharged early next week! Can you believe it!? I feel like I've been waiting forever for that day to arrive! So here's our game plan: Assuming we are discharged next week, we plan to hang out here in Charleston for an extra week or so while we settle our family of FOUR into our rental house -- all together under ONE ROOF for the first time!!! Hubs and I want to have some time to settle into life with a precious newborn while we're still within a 10-minute drive from MUSC, should anything weird happen with Chase (we don't expect this to happen at all... we're just boy scouts!). We won't know until Monday, but there's a chance we'll need to schedule another swallow study (to see if we can try less-thickened milk and eventually regular milk) and perhaps another visit with the ENT folks to do a flexible bronchoscopy here in Chase's room (to see how he's healing and determine whether or not his paralyzed left vocal cord is showing signs of recovery). SO... although we might be discharged next week, it'll still be another week or two after that before we're able to make the trek back to our home sweet home. But can you believe it? There is a light at the end of the tunnel and this leg of our journey may very well be in its final stages!

Of course once we do get home, life will by no means return to the "normal" we once knew. And not just because we're adding a new member to our family. In reality, Chase is still a very fragile little guy (although he looks so incredibly healthy and normal!). We've been advised that it is extremely important that he doesn't get sick between now and his next surgery, the Glenn, which should take place when he's around 6 months old. So basically, once we're home, we're HOME -- meaning no showing off our little rock star, no church, no grocery runs, no shopping trips, etc. Basically, the only time our little one will leave the house is for his doctors appointments. And our sweet LO will have to follow suit. We don't want Chase getting sick because his sister picked up a cold while at Sunday School, so she'll be living in our family's little bubble, too. I know this is going to be so incredibly difficult for me (all of us, really), but I know it's in Chase's best interest and right now that takes precedence over everything else. So let me just say now that while I'm looking forward to being back home and showing off my amazing son, it'll be a long while before he can make public appearances. I, on the other hand, will still be making solo appearances at church, grocery stores, etc. ;) Aren't y'all excited about that!? LOL!

Well this quick little update turned out to be much longer than I expected! Hopefully there won't be much to share tomorrow (Sunday), but maybe, God willing, on Monday, I'll be able to write the happiest post ever, announcing our discharge plans! Woot!!

Thanks to my sister J for sharing these lyrics yesterday. They fully sum up my feelings regarding God's work in my family's lives!

How can I say thanks
For the things You have done for me
Things so undeserved
Yet You give to prove Your love for me
The voices of a million angels
Cannot express my gratitude
All that I am or ever hope to be
I owe it all to Thee!

To GOD be the glory, for the things He has done!!!

Hiccup!

My little monkey has the hiccups!

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Feeding Success!

Chase has had an awesome few days! He took his first bottle feed Wednesday evening and did fantastic! We did more bottle feeds on Thanksgiving at 9am, 3pm and 9pm. Then today we did 3am and 9am. Basically we've been doing every other feed with a bottle and the others through his ng tube. Well, this morning at his 9am feed he kicked butt and downed 105 ccs (just over 3 oz) so we were given the go ahead to give him ALL bottle feeds and NO ng tube feeds!! Woot!!! AND they are basically letting me be in charge of his schedule, feeding him when he's showing signs of hunger rather than adhering to the "every 3 hours" rule around here. So it's like I finally get to care for him as his MOM!! It only took 32 days to get here!

The added bonus of course is that if he keeps up the great work, the ng tube comes out later this afternoon!!! WOOT!!! We are definitely making progress to get ourselves out the door sooner than later!

We are so very thankful for how God has chosen to work in Chase's life! We know His plans are perfect and He has some great things in store for our baby boy. I continue to be humbled that He has brought Chase through this journey so well up to this point. We are forever grateful to our Lord and Savior for seeing us through the hardest time in our lives and for blessing us with our sweet little Rock Star!!


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Happy Thanksgiving!

I am so blessed! Words cannot express how grateful I am for the amazing gifts God has blessed me with!

My husband: He is my rock! He keeps me grounded when I feel overwhelmed. He spoils me and takes such great care of me. He does more for me than I deserve and I am the luckiest woman in the world to call him my husband. And if that weren't enough, he is also the most amazing father to our children. We are so blessed to have a loving, Christian man as the leader of our family!

LO: There is no better 2-1/2 year old on the planet! LO has been absolutely amazing on this journey. She's so resilient and has adapted well to her world turning upside-down these past 6 weeks. She's enjoyed spending time with her various caregivers (Thanks, D, Mona, Gramma & Pa Pa!!) and has made things so much easier for us with her (mostly) good behavior. While I might get frustrated with her at times, I so love her with all my heart and couldn't imagine a day without her in my life!


Chase (a.k.a. "Rock Star"): Where do I begin??! This little man has absolutely stolen my heart and ran away with it! I continue to be amazed by his progress through this journey. He took his first full feed this morning by bottle and did fantastic! We're going to start bottlefeeding every other feed now! I'm still anxious to find out what the game plan will be once he's taking all of his full feeds of thickened milk by bottle. God has truly blessed us with an amazing little baby and I cannot put into words how he makes me feel. I'm so proud to be his mommy!


My Family: My mom, sisters, in-laws and extended family have been an amazing source of strength, support and encouragement to me. They have lifted me up when I was down, strengthened me when I was weak and rejoiced with me over God's numerous blessings. I would be lost without them! I am so blessed to live so close to my mom, sisters and their families and see them so often (when we're not at MUSC, of course!). I have the best family in the world!!!

My Friends: Words can't express how incredible it's been to have such amazing friends to lean on for support. They have encouraged me through phone calls, voicemails, emails and text messages. It's a blessing to have awesome friends who are walking with me through this journey and who remind me that I'm not alone.

Thank you to everyone who loves me and my family and for your constant support!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

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Bottle Time!

Chase went for an additional swallow study this afternoon since they weren't able to gather all the information they needed yesterday. Basically, he didn't take enough of the thickened barium mixture for the doctors to gauge whether or not he could successfully handle a full feed of thickened breastmilk. So back to the lab we went!

I was very impressed with how well he handled the thickened mixture today. He took about 20 ccs in about 2 minutes! That's pretty darn good for a heart baby! We were very pleased that he took the thickened stuff without any signs of aspirating or penetrating his airway. Praise God!

So the game plan is to try to give him his first official bottle feeding shortly -- between 4:30 - 5:00 PM. I can't wait to give it a try and see how he does! My prayer is that he'll take to these bottle feedings VERY well since this in the only thing keeping us here in the hospital. Please say some prayers for my boy and I'll let ya know how he does!

On another note, HAPPY ANNIVERSARY, HUBS! Today's our big 4th anniversary! What a blessing he's been in my life!

On yet another note, Happy Thanksgiving Eve! I hope everybody has a wonderful celebration with family and friends tomorrow!

Waiting...

Well, we were told 5 minutes after Chase's first bottlefeeding attempt was supposed to begin that we were going to hold off. When they did his swallow study earlier today, they started with a regular consistency barium mixture and progressively thickened it. By the time they got to the thickest consistency, he tired out (as most single-ventricle babies do) and didn't take enough of the thickest stuff to get a good enough assessment of how he'll do with a full feed by bottle of the thickened milk. SO... We didn't get to do the bottle today. We have to do another swallow study either tomorrow or Friday (dependent on scheduling) to take more of the thickened barium mixture before we try our first bottle feed. That's what this is all about: the waiting game.

Argh.

Please pray for hubs and I (more so impatient little ME) that we'll be able to take this in stride since it's really all in Chase's best interest.

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Swallow Study Results

We finally went for Chase's swallow study this morning at 10:45 AM. He took about 30 ccs of a barium-water mix (eew!) while we watched on the x-ray to see how he swallowed and whether or not he aspirated. From my untrained eye, he seemed to do great! But we met afterwards with the speech therapist who explained the official results to us.

Apparently there are two things that can happen when Chase swallows: the fluid can aspirate, which means it goes down his throat and into his lungs (not good!) OR the fluid could penetrate, which means it starts to go towards his lungs but eventually gets pulled down the esophagus at the last second (not great). In Chase's case, the liquid seems to penetrate a lot, which can be dangerous. Apparently babies don't typically cough if fluid goes down their trachea like adults do, so we wouldn't know he was aspirating. SO... The game plan is that we will give him breastmilk thickened with cereal in a bottle today at 3:30 PM for his first real mouth feeding. He typically gets 78 ccs per feed every 3 hours in his ng tube, so we'll see how much he's able to take through a bottle and give him the rest through his tube. We may attempt another bottle for one of his evening feeds as well. As he shows he's able to handle the bottle feeds, we'll increase the frequency, giving him any remaining milk through his ng tube (so he still gets 78 ccs total at each feeding). Once he's able to take all of his feeds by bottle, we will be discharged from the hospital. But we won't be done with the feeding yet. We'll have to repeat the swallow study in 2 weeks to see if his ability to swallow and not penetrate has improved. If so, we will then decrease the amount of rice cereal being added to his milk so it's less thick. My guess (haven't confirmed yet) is that we'll do that for another 2 weeks then repeat the swallow study again. If he does well, we might then be able to try non-thickened milk. Obviously my goal is breastfeeding, but it appears we're not anywhere near that point yet.

A few things to note... Chase has a paralyzed left vocal cord. Since the cord doesn't move (the right and left should meet together to protect the airway), there is a gap that could cause him to aspirate. We were told today that 90% of babies with this gap typically fail the swallow study, are not given bottles at all and go straight to a g-tube, a feeding tube that is surgically placed directly into his stomach and is used for all feedings. So although we're a bit disappointed that Chase's timeline isn't what we were hoping for, we are happy that he'll be able to at least try bottle feeding. We pray that he does well and will excel with this.

I'm guessing we'll have some more answers and probably more questions after his first bottle feed this afternoon. I'll be sure to keep y'all updated so you'll know how to pray.

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Success!!

Chase's bronchoscopy couldn't have gone better this morning. They took him back a few minutes after 7am and he was back in the PCICU after about 30 minutes!!! The ENT doc said she was able to clear out all remaining tissue from his throat and said the healing that had take place since the last procedure looked perfect! She doesn't anticipate he'll need another bronchoscopy, which means we're on target to move forward with the swallow study tomorrow! Praise the Lord! We are so very grateful for this!

Thank you all for your prayers this morning!!!


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Moments Later...

Moments after my previous post...

Doesn't he sound great??

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Progress Report

Well, it's been an uneventful few days here on 7C. Chase has been progressing wonderfully with his feeds: he's now up to a 45 minute compressed feed with 2 hours and 15 minutes between them. His goal is 30 minute compressed feeds, which we should be at tomorrow. He's really surprised me yet again and has been processing his feeds like a champ! He has had almost no reflux which is a HUGE bonus!!! I'm so very proud of him. Oh, and he's now up to 9 lbs. 2 oz. which is further proof his feeds are going well.

So we're scheduled for first case Monday morning for Chase's next bronchoscopy. They'll take him back around 6:30 AM for the procedure and he'll head back to the PCICU for recovery, which I'm totally fine with. My prayer is that everything will go smoothly this time and he won't have any major setbacks. Please keep him in your prayers for Monday, too!

Assuming all goes well Monday morning, Chase will finally have his swallow study on Tuesday. This is a HUGE prayer need because we REALLY need the swallow study to go well so we can start working on bottle feeding! Once he's taking all of his feeds by mouth, WE WILL BE DISCHARGED AND ABLE TO GO HOME!!! So you can imagine how critical this is. I don't even want to get into what will happen if he aspirates when he swallows, so just pray that this final last key to the eating process goes well.

My boy has been sleeping the day away and I haven't been able to bring myself to pick him up and hold him since he's so peaceful! See for yourself below! I think after I post this I'm gonna have to get him -- I can't take it anymore!!! :)




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Rest & Relaxation (sort of)

Today is the first day in I-can't-remember-how-long that I've spent the morning at home with LO all by ourselves. In fact, the more that I think about it, this may actually be the first day since we came down to Charleston that I'm at home with her alone! Wow. I'm really enjoying our time together. It's just like how it "used to be" when I stayed at home with her while hubs was at work before this fun journey of ours began. So let's talk about why I'm at home with LO...

As you may recall, Chase was admitted to the pediatric step-down unit, 7C, on Sunday morning. So I went to the hospital Sunday morning and stayed there for about 36 hours straight. Let me tell you: 7C is no picnic. Chase pretty much slept most of the day Sunday. I attempted to sleep Sunday night on the lovely little plastic couch provided, but it was not happening. It never happened. So my hope was that I could make up for it Monday while Chase slept during the day... notsomuch. The door to our "private room" was a revolving one the entire day! From the expected visits from the nurse to bring his food and meds, to the maintenance folks coming in to "repair" the damaged window blinds, backed-up sink or squeaky door (none of which were fixed, by the way), to the random visits from several others, it was a tough day all around. And you can imagine how easy it was to stick to my pumping schedule with this kind of chaos. Of course my Monday started off nice and early with the ENT doc telling me Chase would need a repeat of last Wednesday's "routine" procedure. Needless to say, by late Monday, I was exhausted, both physically and emotionally.

My game plan was still to stay at the hospital Monday night, but hubs just wasn't having it. He gave me the whole speech about me running myself down, not getting any sleep, ending up sick, being useless to everyone, and so on... I knew he was right, but I wasn't sure I could bring myself to leave my precious baby boy in the hospital overnight all by himself when I had the green light to stay with him 24/7! I was a basketcase. This was the hardest thing ever. I cried when I was walking out of the unit around 11PM last night. It was as difficult as that first night I had to leave him in the PCICU after I had been discharged from the hospital. But ultimately, I have to keep reminding myself that this truly is in everyone's best interest -- especially Chase's -- as I can't be any good for him, LO or hubs if I'm exhausted and sick.

So I got up this morning intending to head back to the hospital, but unfortunately (and not surprisingly) I was not feeling well this morning at all. I slept well, but obviously needed much more to get myself back in shape. So my wonderful husband headed to the hospital to spend the day with our son while I stayed home with LO. It was great. I'm still in my PJs. We played, watched Dora, ate lunch and now she's napping. I was able to make a casserole for dinner tonight and put it in the fridge, empty the dishwasher and tidy up the living room. It's amazing the new joy these mundane tasks bring me now that I've been through what I've been through over the past 3 weeks. And I'm very happy to say I'm feeling much better as well!

So since I have a good solid hour of "free time" right now, I'm going to end this post and take myself a lovely, much-needed nap. Hopefully very soon we'll have an update regarding when both Chase's "routine" bronchoscopy and swallow study will be scheduled so I can have you all praying during those times. Thanks again to all of my blog readers -- friends, family, strangers -- who have been lifting my family up in prayer throughout this journey. I know God is with us and has never left us!

I will leave you with the words of a song that so encouraged and inspired me last night during one of my darkest moments so far on this journey. Thanks, Jen, for allowing God to use you to share these words with me at just the right time!

All things work for our good
though sometimes we can't see how they could.
Struggles that break our hearts in two
sometimes blind us to the truth.
Our Father knows whats best for us;
His ways are not our own.
So, when your pathway grows dim,
and you just can't see Him,
Remember He's still on the throne.

God is too wise to be mistaken.
God is too good to be unkind.
So when you don't understand,
when you don't see His plan,
When you cant trace His hand, trust His heart.

He sees the Master plan.
He holds the future in His hands.
So don't live as those who have no hope.
All our hope is found in Him.
We walk in present knowledge,
but He sees the first and the last.
And like a tapestry, Hes weaving you and me
to someday be just like Him.

God is too wise to be mistaken.
God is too good to be unkind.
So when you don't understand,
when you don't see His plan,
When you cant trace His hand, trust His heart.

Step Back

Last night was a bit rough in terms of sleep for mommy, but little Chase had a pretty good night. He seems to be taking to his new room on 7C quite well. Unfortunately, it's time for yet another step backwards.

The ENT folks came through this morning and did a flexible scope bronchoscopy on Chase here at his bedside. I was completely devastated when the doctor said she'd need to repeat last Wednesday's procedure to remove some additional granulation (scar tissue) from his throat. I could not believe it. You can imagine the fears and concerns that overwhelmed me when I heard this. There still isn't a clear explanation as to why Chase coded and required CPR after this procedure last week, so I'm less than confident they know how to prevent it from happening again. I am so scared!!! Plus, he'll probably have to spend the night after the procedure -- you guessed it! -- back in the PCICU. This isn't a big deal. What I'm less than excited about is I'll have to pack up our room here on 7C for the night and probably be put into a different room the very next day. ((sigh))

They also put off his swallow study until later this week since he apparently needs to be on one-hour compressed feeds and right now he's on two-hour feeds. I was looking forward to the swallow study because I just have this feeling that he's going to excel at it and that we'll move forward with mouth-feeding by bottle and eventually (hopefully) able to start breastfeeding. So ultimately today has turned into a series of steps back and/or a lack of progress forward.

I know, I know. Everyone said this would happen. I should have seen it coming. But truly, the idea of Chase repeating the bronchoscopy procedure in the OR again has me beyond frightened. What if they can't bring him back like they did last time?? I've been in tears over this all morning. I know God is still here and still is in control of Chase. I know He has a perfect plan for my son and I do believe His plan involves complete healing. He is with us through this journey. But I'm still human, I'm still a mommy, and I'm still afraid.

Movin' on Up!

This is my first official blog post from 7C! That's right!! We made it! Chase has been an absolute super-star and has exceeded our expectations a hundred-fold with his recovery. Tomorrow he will be THREE WEEKS OLD!!! And tomorrow also marks TWO WEEKS since his Norwood surgery. I still can't believe we're upstairs already. It should be interesting to see how it will be living here at the hospital with Chase while hubs is home with LO. In fact, tonight will be the very first night hubs and I have spent apart in the almost 4 years since we got married (Nov. 25th)! What a huge and significant day today is! Of course it's also my very first night with my sweet baby boy and I couldn't be more excited about plans that DON'T involve a good night's sleep! LOL!

Here's our first picture of our little champion rockin' out on 7C. More to come later!

Next Steps

Today was yet another quiet day, which we are VERY grateful for! Chase spent most of the day napping and chilling out. I got to spend some quality time with him in my arms again today -- WOOT!!! They did another echo on Chase and everything looks fantastic! Praise the Lord! Also, he got up to full continuous feeds so they've started compressing his feeds so he gets his full amount in less time. So far he's handling it well!

So as OT (the occupational therapist) was working with Chase (while I was still holding him, thankyouverymuch!), I noticed Chase's nurse started packing up his things out of his drawers, put them in bags and placed them under his crib. I knew there had been some discussion about us moving up to 7C, but I hadn't heard anything definite. After OT finished, I asked the nurse what the game plan was. She mentioned that the ball was rolling and Chase would be moving up to 7C tonight!

Whaa??

I couldn't believe it! I made absolutely sure Chase wasn't going anywhere for at least 20 minutes because I needed to go pump (TMI?). Anywho... I came back about 20 minutes later and his things were all unpacked back into his drawers and the nurse said Dr. Hsia said he wanted to wait until tomorrow to send Chase upstairs.

Oh.

Really, I didn't mind the wait. We certainly aren't in any hurry to get out of the PCICU -- the care there is very good and we are "comfortable" with our current routine. There are a lot of unknowns as to what things will look like once we get to 7C and I'm staying at the hospital with Chase 24/7 in his private room. So I asked why the change and the nurse said Dr. Hsia didn't really give a reason, which didn't surprise me. She mentioned that she thought the attending Pediatric Cardiologist may have made the call to have Chase moved upstairs without first getting Dr. Hsia's sign-off. Hubs and I have talked with Dr. Hsia a LOT and he is fully aware of how conservative we are. He's the same way, so we're guessing that was part of the deal. Like I said, we're fine with it mostly because it means one last good night of sleep for me, plus more time to pack my things for the hospital, and of course another night of care in the PCICU. So there's a VERY good chance that this time tomorrow, I'll be posting from 7C! Ack! Things will get a bit crazy then as I will be living at the hospital with Chase and hubs and LO will be staying here at our rental house. Should be interesting!

Early next week (hopefully Monday), Chase will do a swallow study where he will drink liquid mixed with barium while a radiologist takes video x-rays of his mouth and throat to determine how liquid passes into his esophagus. They basically want to determine that he will be able to successfully swallow breastmilk without aspirating on it. I'm slightly concerned about how he'll do with this only because he has a paralyzed left vocal cord as well as the area in his throat that had some granulation (which was removed during last Wednesday's procedure). My hope and prayer is that he will continue to amaze us with his outstanding recovery and that he'll pass the swallow study with flying colors! If he isn't able to drink the breastmilk without aspirating, they'll try to thicken the milk to make it less likely for him to aspirate on it. If this ends up being the case, it will definitely rule out breastfeeding for awhile. :( He may also end up keeping the ng tube (it goes through his nose into his stomach) for awhile as well, possibly even after we're discharged. There are a lot of variables and unknowns right now regarding how well he'll do with the swallowing part of eating, but I'm happy to say he's exceeded expectations with his sucking reflex! That means we're making progress towards mouth feeding... so please pray that he'll do great with the swallow part!

Ultimately our goal is to get our family back home! So the next step is moving up to 7C. Then we'll have the swallow study and work on getting our boy to eat his full feeds by mouth. From what I've heard from other families with heart babies, the feeding part is the biggest hurdle to get over before going home! I'm so happy Chase is making such great progress and I will continue to pray that my sweet boy learns how to eat quickly so we can keep up our momentum and get back to our home sweet home!

Thank you for your continued prayers for my baby boy!

All Clean!

Mommy gave Chase his bath tonight for the first time! It was a tiny bit tricky, but nothing I couldn't handle. Once we move up to 7C, I'll be the one and only person in charge of his care, so it was nice to get a quick trial tonight with a nurse standing nearby for support. Check out my cutie, wearing his very first outfit -- at only 18 days old!






This is kinda hard to see since the lights are low in the PCICU right now (it's after 11pm), but here's my little man with his daddy!

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Hoarse

My poor sweet boy! He still has a paralyzed left vocal cord so he sounds very raspy and hoarse. The good news is it's actually improved a bit from last week. The bad news? It's just plain pitiful!

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LO Says Hi!

So hubs, LO and I are headed to the local outlet mall to do some shopping while Mona sits with Chase (he's doing great, by the way). I've been wanting to get out and do something "normal" for a bit before all of our family "help" leaves tomorrow and we're down to just the four of us. Plus, there's been talk about us stepping down to the pediatric floor, 7C, in the next day or so, and when that happens, I won't have much control over my time as I'll be staying at the hospital 24/7 with my little guy. Woot!!

Anyway, I figured it's been awhile since I've posted something about our precious little one, so here she is in the car with her abbreviated version of "Twinkle, Twinkle." Enjoy!

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Content

Our little guy is having a nice, quiet day today. This is a much-needed break from yesterday's fiasco! He's been awake and alert and very content, which makes me feel good. After some prodding and nagging on our part, they finally restarted his feeds around 9AM. He hadn't had anything in his tummy since 4AM yesterday morning, the poor guy! I think the food is a big reason he's so happy today. As result of yesterday's mishap, he still has an arterial line in his leg and a foley catheter which means I still can't hold him. I'm hopeful these lines will be out tomorrow morning and I'll be able to get him in my arms again then.

Thanks to everyone for your continued prayers for our sweet little Chase. God isn't through working a miracle in his life. Stay tuned!!!

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Apology

I'm sorry about my last few posts today. It's been a very frustrating and difficult day -- not at all what I had expected.

We got back to the PCICU around 9:30 PM and I was able to speak with his nurse again. After discussing what transpired during shift change this evening, she mentioned a few more details she had left out when I called earlier. Bottom line was she didn't feel as though Chase was truly ready to be extubated and thought it would be best for him to wait. She did admit there was a LOT going on in the unit at the time, which really didn't make me feel any better about her decision, but I'm happy to say Chase is being extubated as I write this. We should be able to see him in a few minutes.

I guess I just wanted to apologize for my negative attitude when writing my posts today. I just haven't been in a good frame of mind after all that's happened today. Please forgive me!


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Seriously?!

Just found out my son finally woke up after his tumultuous afternoon around 7:15 PM and the doctor ordered for him to be extubated. Unfortunately the nurse was busy and needed to get report on another patient so she gave him some morphine instead and decided he'd probably wake up again around 9PM and he could be extubated then instead.

Seriously.

Two extra hours of being on a ventilator that he doesn't need. Two extra hours of that endotracheal tube resting on his sensitive throat right where he was operated on earlier today to remove the irritation caused from him being intubated for almost 2 straight weeks! Two extra hours of TORTURE for my son!!!!!

This is NOT a good day.