Saturday, September 20, 2008

Update on Brayden


Brayden has been doing pretty well the past few weeks. He has been able to wear his passy muir valve (speaking and swallowing valve) on his trach all day long. He is able to breathe air in through his trach but he has to breathe out through his mouth or nose with the valve on. He is also able to make sounds and able to cough stuff up instead of all of his air and secretions coming out of his trach site. This is a great accomplishment compared to only a few weeks ago he couldn't even keep it on for a few minutes without coughing so hard and struggling so hard to breathe out with it on he would just pop the valve right off of his trach. He has been making gooing sounds all the time with it on and he makes sure we can hear those loud cries when he gets fussy. We were having to suction his trach many times an hour but now since he is wearing the passy muir valve, we don't even need to suction him at all. He is able to cough up any secretions and his is swallowing pretty well. Hopefully this is a good sign that the trach will soon be gone. Brayden has been feeling alot better since we started him on an antibiotic for his g-tube site (feeding tube) which looked infected. His g-tube site is looking much better now too, it was all red and irritated and I think alot of his fussiness was due to pain from his g-tube site. He is starting to be able to move around alot more now too. He is kicking his legs now and he is also lifting his head very well when he is on his tummy. He can scoot around and push himself off of his mat we lay him on while he is on the floor especially when he is mad or fussy. He loves to sit in dads recliner and has really taken it over but now he has figured out how to scoot and push his way down to get out of it. He wants to walk so bad he can stand it. He will stand up and while you are holding him and get so mad because he can't hold himself up. He has started to push his knees up when he is on his tummy too and he has started to roll a little bit when he is laying down. He can roll over by himself if he gets mad enough but if he isn't fussy he can't quite make it. He has his good days and bad days and we just take things one day at a time because we never know what to expect. He enjoyed his sisters birthday yesterday, he even tasted a litte dab of icing and ice cream. He has been really sweet and calm all day today and able to wear his passy muir valve all day today. He has been smiling and gooing all day. We are excited about going to Miracle Mountain for HBOT. We will be leaving on Sept. 28th and gone through Oct. 21st. Thanks to everyone for their donations who have made it possible for Brayden to be able to receive these treatments.

Sunday, September 7, 2008

Thursday, September 4, 2008

We are going to Miracle Mountain for HBOT in September!!!!




We got in to Miracle Mountain for their September-October Session for Brayden to do his hyperbaric oxygen therapy. We will be going from Sept 28 - Oct 21. They have a hard chamber there with 100% oxygen. We hope we see results like we have using the soft chamber, because he has came a long way since the day he came home. We are excited to see the results from doing the 100% oxygen chamber which delivers more pressure and 100% oxygen. Where as the soft chamber he has been going to uses less pressure and less oxygen but, we have seen great results from doing it. So we are very excited to see what the hard chamber will do for him. Mom and Pawpaw will be going with him.

Brayden has been sick again. Spitting up, very fussy, running a fever and just feeling rotten. He has also been very agitated and fussing all day and all night, where nothing at all comforts him. Its very frustrating when he is constantly fussing and nothing that we do helps to comfort him. We went to the pediatrician and everything checked out ok, so maybe it is just something viral. He has been feeling a little better today with less fussing than the previous 5 days. No fever today either, so that is good. Maybe he is on the road to recovery.

We hope he is feeling well by Saturday so he can make an appearance at his benefit car show. We really appreciate everything everyone has done with the car show for Brayden. The address for the car show is: 4976 Hwy 58, Chattanooga, TN 37416. We hope it is a success because without the benefits for him there is no way we would be able to do the hyperbaric oxygen therapy for him.