Elation and Frustration

The elation part of the post relates to the fact that Kirsten and I are Aunt and Uncle to baby twins-- Blake and Ella Bushey. They're both doing well-- as far as we've heard-- and we're excited for my brother Brian and his wife Erica.

While we're ecstatic for them and the healthy birth, we're getting a bit frustrated with Madeleine as she's continuing to struggle with her breathing. Thankfully, feeding is going well and it appears that the "take it slow" strategy of increasing 5 cc's ever two days is working. At the same time, we're pretty confused by Madeleine's sudden struggles with breathing. Since her birth, Madeleine has had relatively few breathing episodes. Prior to heart surgery she breathed faster than the doctors wanted but that could be attributed directly to her heart. Furthermore, while she was on different forms of breathing support, it was never chronic and she usually was weaned quite easily. At over three months of age, we didn't expect her to develop breathing issues and we're confused by the fact that she's breathing fast again and periodically having problems with her saturation levels. At this point, it doesn't appear to be anything major-- they have her on nasal canula and can easily correct any breathing struggles but we're frustrated as the doctors can't explain why we're having these struggles at this point in the game. The not knowing is worse, in many ways than much more serious conditions.

In any case, that's the update for today. Assuming there won't be any explanation-- the doctors are hoping that Madeleine clears it up on her own-- it is our goal to report slow progress on the breathing front in the next few days while continuing to report improvement with feeding. Thanks again,

Brent and Kirsten