It's that time of year - our Gustav Anniversary!

So our friend Kami from Oregon sent this MOST ADORABLE little frog for Braden.

We have some news to share on his health status.

As you know, he's been fighting the bronchitis which has seemed to clear up with the medications we are almost finished with. But we did suspect there was something going on with his trach area, as he seemed sensitive in that area, and more agitated than his usual "leave me alone" huffiness.

Doc found he has an ear infection, which likely explains the grumpiness that seems elevated. So we are on new antibiotics for that.

He also found that after doing a sonogram on Braden's trach, that there is some internal granulation tissue that will need to be removed. When we go for the bronchoscope and this procedure, we will also put in the new fancy trach tube to try.

As we "celebrate" the anniversary of Gustav, we are reminded just how much our little boy is a fighter for his life - as we remember doing resuscitation on him 16 times when we were evacuated from the storm, relegated to a small closet where we could find power for his machines. We choose to CELEBRATE Braden's life on this anniversary remembrance!! This also marks a one-year anniversary since we were admitted to the hospital too!! (Granted, we did get a re-admit when the ventilator failed... but we don't count that as a Braden admit, that was a machine malfunction admit). We've managed to treat a pneumonia and a bronchitis AT HOME this past year, but have managed to escape the confines of the OLOL PICU.

Thanks for checking on us!
Braden and his parents

UPDATE 9/3: SURGERY SET FOR WEDNESDAY TO REMOVE INNER TRACH GRANULATION TISSUE - PLEASE SAY EXTRA PRAYERS THIS DAY!!