This has been a very busy week. I'll post some quick details, and update it later.

We took Hannah to the emergency room Sunday afternoon after she threw up and choked following a feeding, and then was very lethargic. Her lungs are OK, and it turned out she had a urinary tract infection, which was causing the throwing up/lethargy.

She had the NG (feeding) tube back in because a swallow study done last week showed that she was aspirating food into her lungs when she eats. She can have nothing else by mouth unless and until she grows out of that (along with laryngomalacia, she has a floppy airway, which could strengthen as she grows). They were going to put a G tube directly into her abdomen for feeding; since she was in the hospital for this other anyway, they decided to go ahead and place the G tube and Nissen fundoplication (which prevents acid reflux from backwashing and getting into her lungs).

Hannah made it into the operating room about 1 p.m. Thursday, and came through the surgery with flying colors--no need for oxygen afterwards, or any special breathing help (they sort of thought that they might have to intubate her again because of her history). She spent the night in Pediatric Intensive Care Thursday night just as a precaution (again, because of her history), which gave us a chance to come home and get a night's rest. They moved her to the second floor late this afternoon, and they'll probably keep her another four or five days while she heals and we learn how to deal with the new feeding system. Janet and I will continue alternating spending nights at the hospital, and pretty much alternating days going into our respective offices to get work covered. (I'm still pretty much just covering my Web classes in the little bit of time I have--unfortunately, other things are going by the wayside for now, including paperwork-type things.)

More later.

We're still dealing with the latest news on Hannah. She went to East Tennessee Children's Hospital today for a "swallow study." Basically they fed her barium in various consistencies to watch on X-ray how she swallowed stuff. More details will come from the study, but the preliminary results show that she is not protecting her airway. That means when she eats, or when she has reflux, stuff can easily go in her lungs. This can lead to pneumonia or suffocation.

I had assumed that if the malacia was bad enough, they might have to do surgery to correct it. I was wrong, because it's not JUST extra tissue. It's also a "floppy airway." It will be up to the specialist we'll see on Friday, but our pediatrician has said the likeliest course of action will be to put in a gastric tube (which means they'll put a tube directly into her stomach) and then a Nissen tie (which will tie off her esophagus so that nothing can go back up her esophagus). In other words, they'll tie off her stomach so that she can't choke from either end, and the result will be that she will have to get all her nourishment through the tube.

Needless to say, we're a bit distraught over this. We have to immediately put the nasogastric tube back in and feed her that way until they decide. She will go in the hospital on Feb. 10 to have a laryngoscopy and bronchoscopy (they'll look more deeply into her lungs), which will require anesthetic. While she's under for that, they'll likely do the other surgery at the same time.

Hannah needs serious prayers. We all do.