The mystery with Jonathan's occasional breathing problems still continues...over the last couple of days, there were a few times that his breathing got too laboured for the nurses liking so to be on the safe side, he was given a little additional oxygen to help him along.
The doctors have now ruled out the possibility of the problems being caused by infection or anything to do with his heart problem and so the main suspect at this stage is that it is something related to his digestive system (again!)
The nurses have observed that Jonathan's breathing issues seem to occur when his stomach is too full - either after a feed or when he has a problem clearing his stomach contents.
The doctors are guessing that there may be something along Jonathan's gut that narrows every now and then so that the stomach contents can't pass through, which means that his stomach stays full and pushes on his lungs to affect his breathing. They did another scan of Jonathan's digestive system today and saw that there seems to be a narrowing near the part of the duodenum where the surgeons did the surgery. Apparently this is quite common but because of his already-compressed lungs, it may be a problem for Jonathan if it is slowing down the emptying of his stomach contents.
Another thing that the scan images showed is that Jonathan has a large stomach - it seems that he truly is his father's son! :) Unfortunately, however, the large stomach and small lungs combination is not doing Jonathan any favours with his breathing...
For now, Jonathan has been put on smaller but more frequent feeds to help his stomach from getting too full and the plan then seems to be to wait and see whether the problems improve on their own over time. We're praying that they do and that no further surgery is needed!
The comforting thing for us is that even when his breathing is laboured, Jonathan appears to be calm and not in any distress.
Here are some of the latest photos of our little guy:
Getting an additional dose of oxygen:
My mum claims that this is a smile - I'll leave it up to you to decide:
His little hand temporarily wrapped up after his cannula was removed:
The doctors have now ruled out the possibility of the problems being caused by infection or anything to do with his heart problem and so the main suspect at this stage is that it is something related to his digestive system (again!)
The nurses have observed that Jonathan's breathing issues seem to occur when his stomach is too full - either after a feed or when he has a problem clearing his stomach contents.
The doctors are guessing that there may be something along Jonathan's gut that narrows every now and then so that the stomach contents can't pass through, which means that his stomach stays full and pushes on his lungs to affect his breathing. They did another scan of Jonathan's digestive system today and saw that there seems to be a narrowing near the part of the duodenum where the surgeons did the surgery. Apparently this is quite common but because of his already-compressed lungs, it may be a problem for Jonathan if it is slowing down the emptying of his stomach contents.
Another thing that the scan images showed is that Jonathan has a large stomach - it seems that he truly is his father's son! :) Unfortunately, however, the large stomach and small lungs combination is not doing Jonathan any favours with his breathing...
For now, Jonathan has been put on smaller but more frequent feeds to help his stomach from getting too full and the plan then seems to be to wait and see whether the problems improve on their own over time. We're praying that they do and that no further surgery is needed!
The comforting thing for us is that even when his breathing is laboured, Jonathan appears to be calm and not in any distress.
Here are some of the latest photos of our little guy:
Getting an additional dose of oxygen:
My mum claims that this is a smile - I'll leave it up to you to decide:
His little hand temporarily wrapped up after his cannula was removed:
4 comments:
Not sure about a smile Mrs Ko - maybe wind?!?.... :)
Definitely a beautiful smile, Emily.
Lynda
Not sure if it is a smile but whatever it is, it certainly does add more cuteness (wasn't sure that was possible). I hope they figure out what's going on with his breathing soon and that there's a non-surgical solution.
He looks so much like Chris!! :)
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