The Whisler Life

Heather here.  Where to start…

Barney and the kiddos and I went for what we thought was going to be a short visit to the hospital on the way to OMSI today.  We never quite made it to OMSI.
Everything seemed great when I got there.  Owen had been off the breathing tubes all morning and while still drugged up and “drunk”, he was at least looking around and grabbing at things an such.  Boy was that great to see!  Chloe left to get a coffee and visit with Barney and the kiddos who were waiting outside ICU, while I stayed to keep an eye on Owen.  He was doing really well for a while, and then he started struggling a little more for breath and his blood oxygen levels dropped.  Chloe came back right about that time, and they brought the specialists in to give him a nebulizer treatment and try to break up some of the gunk blocking his airway.  He coughed up a huge amount of stuff, which was exactly what they were hoping for.  He looked much more comfortable, but then started really straining to try to have a bowel movement, which he hasn’t done yet!  Yikes!  Chloe has been pumping and they’ve been mixing it with formula to give to him, so things have been going in, but nothing coming out as of yet.  Well, it looked like he was finally trying to get some movement down there, straining for a good minute or two, when Chloe noticed something strange was going on around his neck area.  He was swelling up like a little balloon, so she called the nurses and docs in, and they quickly swung into action.  They knocked him back out and ended up having to reinsert the breathing/feeding tubes.  They called the surgeon back to the hospital (poor guy, he thought they were completely in the clear) and he came and took a look at Owen.  Basically, they said that (possibly from the straining), Owen had reopened the scar that had been healing so well the past few days, and air was leaking into his tissues around his neck.
So, long story short, they’re going to be there for an extended stay.  Not what we had hoped for by any means, but hopefully he’ll heal even better this time, and the suppositories will kick in, and the next time they take him off of the tubes, he won’t have any troubles.  Chloe’s doing ok, but as you can imagine, she’s pretty drained, especially when she thought they were in the home stretch.  And Ayden is hanging in there, but getting a little sensitive about Mommy being gone.  Luckily he has been able to visit the hospital quite a bit, and he, Patrick, and Grandma Kelly were on their way in as I headed out this evening.  Please keep Owen in your thoughts for quick and thorough healing, and the family for patience and some peace of mind during this extended ordeal.  As usual, I’ll keep y’all posted!