Surgeries today went well. We prayed over all the staff, rooms, instruments, equipment, etc that would be involved in Asher's transport, procedure, sedation, etc. before they took him down. I know he is glad to have all that stuff out of his face. His skin is raw from weeks of having his ET tube re-taped over and over again and his lips are swollen. We also found one of his front teeth is loose and pushed forward some compared to normal. His tongue is still between his teeth. Sometimes he lets us push it back in and other times he clamps down on it. 

We had another call with Dr. Lucas today (neuro-rehab) and we reviewed some of the things we are doing to help Asher's body and brain learn to talk again. He is doing red light therapy (hospital staff was very confused when we brought in two giant boxes and started building the thing in the room lol) and we are using a little vibratory tool to help activate certain reflexes and cranial nerves. We are seeing small, but mighty gains with his reflexes and we are praising Yah with each tiny success. Lots of baby steps lead to lots of progress. We'll talk with her again this coming week and add a few more things.

The trach nurse came by to start education and we were glad to hear that she isn't expecting the trach to be for life, just a transition tool. We know it's not going to be, but it is getting old hearing from others all the negative things they expect. 

Tonight they are starting feeds slowly through his G tube. Once we get back to goal rate, then we can start consolidating back into bolus feeds. His blood pressure has been a little higher today and they're not sure if it's because of pain or because one of the meds he was on was discontinued abruptly. They scheduled some tylenol for pain control. 

The doc that was mocking Yah being the reason Asher is alive a couple weeks ago was on two days ago and helped with the re-intubation incident. We were talking during rounds about what actually happened. Essentially, Asher coughed so forcefully that he coughed his ET tube out of his trachea and swallowed it back into his esophagus so his aspiration was very minimal. Most of the tube feed we were seeing in the ET tube and circuit was coming directly from his stomach. We were laughing about how Asher would be the kid to do the unusual thing and how unique he is and how we keep having these big setbacks when we are ALMOST off the ventilator. She agreed that he is a different kind of kid and said she's never seen this happen before. I reminded her that I told her he is going to be running the hallways so she is not done surprising her. She affectionately said she was looking forward to it. 

We finally got Asher relaxed after being tense most of the day and are hoping for an uneventful night. 

Keep praying with us. I was overcome with emotions tonight looking at the pictures of my sweet boy we have posted in the room vs how he is in bed right now. We are so looking forward to having our spunky, determined, strong, smart, funny guy back. I wish he and his baby brother were bonding right now, but I know it will come. He is going to be even more whole than before the accident and we give every bit of glory to God, both for what He has already done and what He is going to do. Romans 8:11 says that if the Spirit who raised Jesus dwells in us, that He who raised Jesus will also give life to our mortal bodies through that Spirit.