Post surgery recovery

Biggun is having some difficulty recovering from surgery. They have him on the oscillator again and he does really great for awhile and manages more at 21%, but then his oxygen saturation bottoms out and they have to bump him back to 60%. They say this is a result of recovering from surgery.
The PIE is slowly doing better. They gave him a diuretic to help clear up some of the haziness in his lungs, and the progress is already apparent. He's having x-rays every 12 hours to monitor the fluid build up in his lungs.
Nothing more on the IVH level 2. His follow up ultrasound is Friday, but they will do one sooner if his head circumference changes.
They gave him Ativan tonight to help with moving him. Every 12 hours they flip him in the bed so his head doesn't get stuck in one position.

He was pretty comatose while we were there, but he was on pain medication and Ativan. Hopefully time will make him feel better.

Pray for a speedy recovery!

Much love,
Rachel and Joshua

Note: on the photo, you can see the tiny incision under his arm. They spread his ribs to put the titanium clamp in.

Post surgery

Surgery went well. Biggun is recovering now and we should see how well it does tomorrow.

PDA Ligation

Biggun is currently undergoing surgery for his PDA right now. They turned the room into an OR, and kicked everyone out.
Prep time is about an hour. Then surgery will be anywhere from 10-40 minutes.

Pray for him.

Much Love,
Rachel and Joshua

Surgery

Biggun had a pretty rough night. They think the PDA fully opened back up so they are pushing for surgery today. This is both good and bad...
Please send prayers. He can't handle much more fluctuating of stats.

Murmur

So we have a few updates for the day...

First, the murmur is still present. That means surgery. We are waiting for the doctor to come talk to us and get the details from her.

He also has what's called a PIE, which is Pulmonary Interstitial Emphysema. Basically, because air is being forced into his lungs with this ventilator, it can sometimes force the fragile branches to break which causes air to leak behind the lungs. It's pretty dangerous, and it means that the healed wound will be scarred so he will likely suffer from some form of lung disease later. The treatment is to allow it time to heal by gently ventilating him. So keep your fingers crossed that heals up. X-Ray still shows it at this time.

The other thing worth mentioning is they found he is Coombs positive. Meaning while he was in utero, his blood mixed with mine and my cells attacked his. It happens most often with type O moms and Type A babies. It means he's predispositioned to having a higher bilirubin, so they are watching that closely.

The chaplain came by to say a prayer with me and offer communion. It reminds me that with prayer, anything is possible. Please keep us in your thoughts.

Much Love,
Rachel and Joshua

Wrap up - January 14

Just left from saying goodnight to Biggun. He got a little excited with us being there and dramatically lost his oxygen, so we left him to sleep.

He moved down from 48 oxygen to 36, which was a great improvement. Still has a murmur and they did a chest xray that they will have the results on tomorrow.

It's looking more and more like surgery will be the likely outcome. So pray for our little guy to be safe! His eyes opened while we were there and his stats seem to be stabilizing.

Thank you for the prayers!

Much Love,
Rachel and Joshua

Shopper's Donations

Hey guys... I wanted to post this out there for people who read the blog.

Some of the people in our local area have been kind enough to set up a site where 25% or more of the proceeds from their sales will go to Biggun's financial costs. This is a huge deal for us as we are working on making our financial situation work.

Whether you are in the local area or not, they have plenty of web-based sales on a variety of products, and you can see from the facebook page what % will go to donations. So if it's something you would normally buy, you might check it out since part of the amount will go towards our costs here.

Thank you for the out pouring of support and love we have received. It's moments like this when I realize how very much prayer and human kindness can change someone's life. You have all changed mine by caring so much about my son, and I cannot express how much that means to me. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your love.

The site is: Joshua "Biggun" Keslar Shopper's Donations

Thank you to Amanda Samford for getting this set up for us.

Here is the link on Amanda's website as well, which discusses what the facebook group does - Amanda Samford - Community Support for Baby Keslar

Check it out and tell us what you think!

Much Love,
Rachel and Joshua