Going Home, again

OK, I think we are all systems go this time, but not without some reservation. The sleep study was very similar to the nap study, which showed overall elevated levels of CO2. Dr. Rouse explained that he felt there were two options: 1. Get the trach or 2. take hime home. He feels there are risks with either option. With the elevated CO2 levels, the big risk is if Gabe were to get a cold. He could be in respiratory distress rather quickly, which they feel would be greatly minimized with a trach and ventilator. However there are risks with the trach as well. For example there is a tremendous amount of care involved with a trach and if it were to get plugged, he could be in the same rapid distress situation. Apparently there aren't any home health nurses specializing in infant trachs that could come to the home and adequately check our progress, which adds to the risk.

We talked about it quite a bit over the weekend and felt that we should get him home and postpone a trach. We have the benefit of summertime, meaning it is not cold and flu season and the boys aren't in school to bring home all kinds of bugs. He will be followed monthly by several specialties, including pulmonology - who will likely recommend follow-up sleep studies. We will also get a repeat echocardiogram at some point to watch for pulmonary hypertension. We voiced this to Dr. Rouse and I think he felt that was a valid point. He cautioned us on the importance of keeping Gabe's exposure to bugs as minimal as possible, meaning no venturing out with Gabe except to where he absolutely needs to go and no visitors. This is hard b/c we want so much to introduce him to everybody and realize this will have to wait. At the end of the discussion, I asked him what he would do in our position (with the understanding this is a hard situation and a hard question to answer). He responded that he didn't know.

So, *deep breath* the day we have waited for has arrived. We are as comfortable with this as we can be. Josh's birthday present for today is the news that Gabe is coming home - that and the dirty diaper Gabe presented him with when Josh was holding him.