27th July: Airway troubles and meetings

27th July: The air way

Today was the day Oliver was going to have a camera down his throat, this was to see if there was any obstacles that effected his breathing.

By now all sense of positivity was almost diminished, what and why is he having problems breathing were questions that needed answering, even the nurses didn't know, hence the camera.

The results came back and they had found, when the breathing tube is removed olivers airway was floppy and this would cause it to collapse on its self.

Due to his airway collapsing the airway was obstructed causing olivers body to litteraly suffocate itself.

I was told that they were going to have a very indepth meeting around Oliver to discus his options. For now tho they had all agreed for him to have steroids injected into his neck to strengthen his muscles in that area.

28th July: No change, Oliver had another eye test today just to see if his stage 2 ROP had got any worse, turns out it looked as tho it may be progressing. This was just another hurdle in the way as with the airway, things seemed to all be happening at once. 

29th July: Oliver was to have his CT scan today, this was to check his bowel as the other stich was due to come out. His bowel was progressing and healing very well, with the recent news on his airway and his eyes and everything else, this was like a light at the end of the tunnel. Although things were not progressing in other areas his bowel was, and it was nice to have something positive to visually see.

The airway !

Speaking to the doctors and nurses they are organising a meeting next week, as olivers condition was exceptionally rare. They want people from all areas to join this meeting to input ideas and discuss outcomes.

They done a CT scan on his windpipe and they discovered his windpipe is very large and all solution's they had previously discussed wouldn't be feasible.

Having a discussion with the doctor he said it is something we almost never see. This made me extremely nervous, I knew what my next question was going to be, and it was one I didn't want to, but knew I needed to ask. "Will Oliver need surgery?", he replied and said "it's very likely Oliver will need surgery".

The wait was on now for next week to see what the outcome will be, going forward with what's discussed in the meeting. 

Further more having the discussions with the nurse its highly likely that Oliver was to remain in hospital until past next year.

As olivers dad I can only explain in probably the only way I know how to describe it, but I was broken.

Set back after set back, overcoming all the things in our way, Oliver always had something new to fight.

This meant I always had something new to fight, conflicted with myself debating do I even have it in me. I was worried about Frances, I was worried about Rose, I was worried about everything and let me tell you there's only so much a person can worry about before they break. As much as I had gone through, up till this point I didn't feel it was my breaking point even if it felt like it. I was seeing this through as much as I wanted to give up I just couldn't, even if I did feel broken my mind and body wouldn't let me.

I asked after I had spoke with the docs ect to hold Oliver. I needed him to know he was doing a fantastic job, I needed him to hold to give me strength.

I remember just whispering to him "you got this boy, I know you have".

Next laser eye surgery and growing concerns.