A thing like autumn

So many days gone by! Yet all is well, so far.

The surgery was successful, as far as it goes. Dr Vlastos and Dr Yang implanted the gel in Flynn’s trachea, and the last time they looked at it, there it still was. That’s been two weeks ago, so I guess this must be the third week in. It is supposed to dissolve in about four weeks.

Bonnie is not here to remind me of the exact number, but I think they estimated his lungs at about 1.25, and a day after the surgery they had, no doubt due to pressure of contained fluids that normally generate in the lung, had expanded to closer to 1.6 or so. A week after the surgery the ultrasound indicated the lungs had expanded to closer to 2.4, which certainly indicates growth.

The interest, mind you, is in the left lung. The right lung has been unseen before this, just a rumor. But last week at St Luke’s the ultrasound revealed just a hint of the missing right lung, a suggestion that maybe the procedure was having an impact there as well. We don’t know what Monday’s MRI at St Luke’s may have shown: those results have been sent off to St Louis. We hope the results will be useful enough to the Fetal Care Institute, else Bonnie will have to stay overnight in St Louis.

If all goes well, after he is born his lungs will have a chance to grow and fill the space where the liver was, once it is moved back down to where it belongs. He will never be a mountain climber or a jazz saxophonist, but . . .

But today, right now, Bonnie is on the road to St Louis, taking most of my world with her. How Sparrow will feel this evening I don’t know: she misses Mama acutely.

So do I.