Surgery #4 in the books

Wes' surgery today went well. It took about 3-hours, which had us a little concerned (Max's procedure took about 1 1/2 hours), but the surgeons are very pleased with the results. Perhaps the best part of the whole thing is that Wes came back into the nursery post surgery on CPAP!! The anesthesiologist chose to do more of a local anesthetic as opposed to a general, so Wes was not nearly as "out of it" as Max was when he had his hernia repair a few weeks ago. The transport team said they better extubate him and get him on CPAP so that Wes didn't do it himself on the trip from the operating room to the NICU nursery. Yet another way God has answered our prayers in a way we wouldn't have even thought imaginable. Wes was certainly in "lala" land for a while, but he was awake and at least partially aware. The surgeons said he had a very large hernia on one side and a smaller hernia on the other, so he should be quite a bit more comfortable now!!

Max had a quiet day...he let his brother have the limelight today. His blood gases continue to be very good, but the doctors continue to wait before making any further changes to the CPAP pressure. Kate and I are just so thankful that Max has now been on CPAP for 8-days after relying on a ventilator to sustain his life for 117-days. Even Doctor Doctor stopped by and said...and I quote, "Max continues to amaze us all!!" He even said that the trach talk has been put on "pause." I feel like we are on a completely different path than we were even two weeks ago...and that is a good thing!!