Picture's of Bryant. Finally!!!

So tomorrow will be 4 weeks at Primary Children's Medical Center. It has been a rollercoaster. We have met some outstanding families, that have made our journey easier. It's easier to talk to them because they know exactly what you are going through and exactly how you feel. You root for them. We root for Maddux to eat and poop. We celebrated when Bryant's firt buddy Andrew got to go home today (congratulations to the Christensen family!).

Bryant is progressing. Right now is so hard because he is going through withdrawals from the drugs he was on to manage his pain. He is feeding good. One day he will eat 3 full feedings then the next he will eat 2ml. A full feeding is 56ml. Once he does that consistantly we can head home. But is withdrawal is slowing the process up. The important thing is every day Bryant is getting better. We worked with our development therapist and Bryant lifted his head and moved it side to side all on his own. He also followed toys with his eyes. He prefers solid colors. He also responded to daddy's voice. Our therapist gave him an A+ for the day.

Aspen talks every day about her brother. She draws him pictures, tells stories about what she will teach him. It's amazing. She never stops amazing me. She never has been jealous of all the attention that Bryant gets and we try our hardest to keep it that way. She loves her time with Papa Lonnie and the train ride he takes her on.

Again we would like to thank everyone for their prayers and best wishes.

Anyway here are the pictures....

Here is mama with her lil boy. He likes his sleep.

Bryant loves eye contact.

Here are the Martin boys!!

All snuggled in.

Getting Close...

Today was a good day! Bryant took three full feedings through a bottle today. A full feeding is at least 50 cc's. It was the first time he has done that. The other feeding was 37 cc's. So it was a good day.

A couple of days ago they took him off of fentinal and replaced it with morphine. They were giving it to him every 4 hours. Then they moved it to every 8 hours. And today they just took the morphine away. Bryant did ok. He is going through withdrawal. But the nurse said he is dealing with it ok. He's eating and he can be calmed down. If he didn't they would have to give him some morphine.

So getting him to feed is the only thing that is in the way of going home. But more important is every day he is getting better.

Good day!!

Bryant news

He is up to full feedings. Which is 55 cc's. Last night he ate 40 cc's through the bottle, and he ate 31 cc's for me this morning. Whatever he doesn't eat through the bottle goes into his feeding tube.

They also removed his PIC line yesterday. My cousin Tim and I got to witness this. It was 25 cm long. He received his pain meds through the PIC line. They still have to give him the pain meds because of withdrawals. But they couldn't get the line in through his hand so they put the line in his scalp.

They are changing his pain med from fentinal to morphine. Fentinal is an opiate. It is more powerful than morphine and lasts longer. They are also giving him it to him less often now. They don't want to just take it away from him because it is a narcotic and the withdrawals would be too great. But pretty soon they are going to give his meds orally and will no longer need the line in his scalp, so hopefully in a couple of days he will be line free.

Five days later....

So five days later and things have gone very well! In five days they have increased his feedings from 7 cc's to 27 cc's. Well the 27 cc's start tomorrow. They are also feeding him twice a day with a bottle. They have started weening him from his pain medication. The lower it again tomorrow. They have also removed the hi flow oxygen. The hi flow was used to keep his airways open. He was at 6 which is the highest and they lowered him to 3 but he kept pushing it out so they left it out. He got an MRI on his brain, and it is officially bigger than his dad. Everything checked out for his MRI. He graduates from a warm bed to a crib. Big steps. His breathing is still labored when he gets mad, but that should get better as his vocal chord nerve gets better or the next few months.

Thank you for all of your prayers!

Great, Great Day!!!

So today was a complete 180. Bryant did great. He got his last chest tube taken out. It looked very painful. He also got his first feeding. It was through a feeding tube, but it's a start. They gave him two teaspoons. Then our motor therapist gave him a pacifier and he loved it. It might not seem like a big deal but it shows his esophagus is healing. Then to top it off, Jen got to hold him for the first time in 13 days. She got to hold him for 30 minutes.

GREAT DAY!!!!

Poor guy

Bryant went down for another bronchoscopy to see if his trachea is collapsing. The good news is that it's not collapsing. But of course there is some bad news. During his operation to repair his esophagus a nerve was damaged that controls a vent in the voice box. It actually paralyzed the left vent. I'm not sure of the actual term so I'm using vent. And the reason it's a big deal is that it doesn't close the trachea when it's not breathing so when Bryant eats theres potential food or milk can go down his trachea causing him to choke or go down to his lungs causing pneumonia.

The good news about this is that the nerve can repair itself. But it adds two to three more weeks to our recovery and it will need to be monitored after we leave. So we will be here more than we expected.

His trachea also looks swolen from the breathing tube, so that will go down in time.

Hopefully we can start feeding Bryant through a feeding tube. The more he eats the stronger he will be.

Bryant Mason Martin

Bryant Mason Martin was born May 2nd at 3:59am. He weighed 5lbs 15oz and 19 1/2 inches long. Jen gave birth by c section. Bryant was born with a tracheoesophageal fistula (TEF).

What is that you ask? Well it's a birth defect where the esophagus is not attached. In Bryant's case the bottom of his esophagus was attached to his trachea (wind pipe) and the top was like a bowl. So if he swallowed food or saliva it could go into his lungs.

So after being with us Bryant and I flew via Life Flight to Salt Lake City, Utah to Primary Childrens Medical Center for him to have surgery to repair his esophagus. Before we left Jen and I did get to hold him.

Bryants surgery was a completed. But we had to wait to see if it was a success. But after the surgery Bryant was left with two tubes in his mouth. A breathing tube and an OG tube to suck out spit and such out of his stomach. He also has a chest tube to drain out secressions. He also had various IV's for feeds and medication.

After a couple of days they removed his breathing tube so he could breath on his own. He was breathing on his own but it was very labored. They decided to put a CPAP on. It is like a winter cap with a nose mask on. Very uncomfortable for Bryant. A chest X Ray showed his right lung had collapsed. They did a esophogram to determine if his surgery was causing an air leak. The esophogram showed the surgery was a success and their were no leaks.

A couple days after the CPAP did not expand the lung it was determined to put the breathing tube back in. The lung still did not expand. The doctor thought that Bryant and some huge plugs in his lung that won't allow it to expand.

They decided to do a bronchoscopy. The surgeon puts a camera down his lung to see what is blocking the way. It can also suck out the obstruction. There were two huge mucas blocks they were able to extract. He got air in his chest again and had to put another chest tube in to drain the air out.

Bryant had a breathing tube for two more days. They extubated him and his breathing was still labored but now as bad as before. His lung did not collapse but they are worried that his trachea might have been weakened and that could possibly be collapsing causing the mucas plugs and the lung collapsing.

So tomorrow the Ears, Nose, and Throat doctors are going put their scope down his throat to see if his trachea is weak.

They did remove the first chest tube and are talking about feedings. In order for Bryant to go home he has to take two full feedings and gain weight. But they have build up the feedings. Also there are side effects for TEF patients. They can develop reflux causing them to throw up their feedings. So we will see.

Jen and Aspen are down here.

We also want to say thank you to all of you that have sent us their prayers and wishes. It is truly humbling with all of the love and support we have received from our family and friends. I would hate to imagine how things might be with out that support. We love you all so very much and I can't begin to tell you how much you mean to us.

God bless.