1st Surgery Done!

Well yesterday was a tough day for Harrison, but he was amazing and so strong. He had a tracheostomy placed to ensure that his airways remain stable given the evolving nature of his spinal injury. While he is able to breathe on his own, he was having to work pretty hard to get enough oxygen rather than just using that energy to heal. The trach will be needed in preparation for his spinal surgery too and it needs a solid week to "mature" before another surgery can really take place safely.

We were able to be added last minute to the surgical schedule and he went in around 1pm. There were no complications and it only took just over an hour. His pain was pretty well controlled and we noticed he was more alert and aware of us/surroundings than we've seen in the past 3 days.

He had a bit of a difficult night with atelectasis, or a partially collapsed lung on the right side that made all the monitors to go off & created quite the party of medical professionals in our room for a hour or so. Thankfully it was caught quickly and his amazing team is doing therapy to stimulate his lung and get it to re-inflate on its own, which has shown marked improvement since around 5am.

He's resting right now and is getting to restart his formula feeds for the first time in 6 days, so he'll be much happier and more energetic soon we hope. Getting him proper nutrition to help increase his strength and ability to heal is our main priority for today.

His spinal surgery is "scheduled" for a week from now - I use that term loosely because we're learning that nothing is firm with surgery dates/times. Also, because this is somewhat tricky to coordinate, as it will require a 6-8 hour block of time where a dedicated operating room is available for the neurosurgery & orthopedic surgeons (plus their respective teams) to all collaborate.

Thank you all for the amazing support, generosity, and prayer that everyone is outpouring on our little family. We are definitely feeling the love and that helps make this stressful situation just that much easier to bear.