Update9

Corey's Updates

Previous Updates

7/23/02 - (10:00pm) Corey is doing well after his surgery and the doctors said everything went very well. They have him back on his old vent setting already and he is doing very good with them. (They have to put him on higher settings when going for surgery because of anesthetics.) They did not expect for him to be back on his old settings until tomarrow, but Corey had other plans. :)

7/24/02 - (10:00pm) Corey continues to recover well today. He is still on pressure support/cpap and his oxygen need remained around 30% all day. The eye doctor came in today and said that Corey's eyes are not getting any worse at this point. This is very good news because there is a possibility now that he may not need treatment for them and they will heal themselves. We met with a social worker, the home nursing agency, the supplier of home medical equipment, and the doctors to discuss Corey's needs when he comes home. In that meeting, a tentative go home date for Corey would be August 12th. It takes that long to get the paperwork and training on the home ventilator completed. This date, of course, is contingent on Corey improving over the next few weeks. We will likely have 24 hour home nursing support for a couple of days and then wean it down to 12 hours of nursing at night. We have a lot to do before Corey comes home!!!!

7/28/02 - (10:00pm) Corey has been doing well the past few days. The doctor has been weaning the ventilator settings and Corey had been doing well with those until today. The doctor increased some of the settings and will try weaning again this week. Corey was weighed a couple of days ago and he was 6lbs.7oz. We have been working on training for doing Corey's care while at home with a trach and on the vent. They are switching Corey back to ever three hours feeds to prepare for oral feedings.

7/31/02 - (10:00pm) Corey has been doing okay the last few days. They have had to put Corey back on a vent rate of 10 and to return him to continuous feedings. They did this because Corey was having to work harder to breathe. Today he seemed to be more relaxed and hopefully they will be able to wean him back down on his settings over the next few days. Corey was weighed tonight and he was 6lbs. 13oz. He is getting so big!

8/4/02 - (10:00pm) Corey has been better the last few days. His vent settings are the same and he is up to 18 cc per hour on continuous feeds. The eye doctor came in a couple of days ago and said that Corey's eyes are improving. Big praise!!!! We know more about Corey's go home date. It turns out that the Pulmonologist took this week off, so Corey cannot be started on the home vent until he gets back. This means that it will be August 12th before Corey is tried on the home vent for the first time and we do not know how long it might take Corey to adjust to the vent. He will be able to go home when he is stable on the new vent and he is having minimal oxygen saturation drops. This week the surgeon will evaluate whether Corey needs a bigger trach size again. Corey will also have a swallow study done to make sure that the swallowing mechanism works effectively and that food will not go into his lungs.

8/10/02 - (10:00am) Corey has been doing well this last week. They did the swallow study with Corey and he did perfect, so they started him on bottle feeds. They started with just one a day and then as of yesterday they started him on bottle feeds every feeding!!! They did this because Corey did very well with his first couple of trys. He would take over half the amount that he needed in about 20 minutes. When 20 or 30 minutes is done they put the rest of the food, that he did not finish, through his tube. This week they also decided to put in a larger trach. Corey just keeps growing and is weighing around 7lbs now. He has also decided that he likes tub baths better than sponge baths. We will be posting some of the pictures soon.

8/14/02 - (10:00pm) Corey has been doing well the past few days. He was put on the home ventilator on Monday and has responded well so far. The only problems that there have been are related to confusion as to how to operate the ventilator. The social worker had arranged for a tentative date for Corey to come home of the 15th of August. That will not be happening because we are having problems with the home nursing agency. The agency reports that since they cannot staff our case after Sept. 1st, then they cannot staff it at all. It has been a big mess! Now the tentative go home date is Monday August 19th provided the nursing agency can get nurses together to help up until Sept. 1st. Ironically, our insurance company has been much easier to deal with and more understanding than the home nursing agency has been! Corey has been gaining weight. He is 7lbs. 14.3oz. We are very ready to bring him home. Please pray that we can get the home nursing situation straightened around so that Corey can come home!

8/20/02 - (4:30pm) COREY IS HOME!!! : )
Corey is doing well and likes his new home. He came home last evening. Before we left Corey weighed over 8lbs. I will be posting some pics soon.

8/20/02 - (4:30pm) Sorry it has been awhile. Life has been very busy with Corey home. Corey is doing very well. He is now over 10lbs and just keeps growing. He has been requiring less oxygen and seem very happy to be home. I will try to post pictures as soon as I can. My computer has been acting up and I cannot download them right now. (And I have not had much time to fix it.) I will get it soon. Well as you have probably guessed our updates will not be as often now that Corey is home, but we will periodically be posting some new updates and pictures. Thank you all for keeping up with Corey's progress and all the prayers you have provided. They are the reason Corey has done so well.