Luke and Jack's First Car Ride

It's been a very long, stressful and tiring week for us. I wanted to post a short update right now - Rachel will follow up with more details later.

The boys had their first car ride yesterday afternoon. We had them transferred to Arkansas Children's Hospital and they seem to be doing a little better. Wednesday morning Luke quickly developed lung and breathing problems. They changed him from the respirator to an oscillator - instead of the machine breathing for him at normal intervals, the oscillator gives a constant strong pressure of air to move through the lungs. Instead of seeing his chest expand and contract with normal breathing, the oscillator keeps his lungs full and gives his body some constant vibration.

After a couple hours of serious work, Luke was stabilized. They did a head ultrasound to check the brain for any problems. We looked through his chest x-rays and saw that the bottom of his lungs had begun to look cloudy. Once the results came back and we were told that Luke's brain looked fine, I told the doctor that Jack and Luke needed to be moved to Children's.
Within the hour, two Angel One crews from arrived and began the process of assessing the boys, getting them from their isolettes to the portable ones, and heading down to the ambulance.

Luke needed to wait about 20 minutes for a blood gas test to ensure he was stable enough to transport, so I left with Jack and Rachel waited to ride with Luke. I was happy and scared at the same time, but could not think about anything. I stayed right next to Jack and my eyes never moved from his small body - I don't remember moving my feet or trying to dodge doors or people. The ambulance ride was calm, but the 5-mile drive seemed to take forever.

Both boys arrived safe and sound. Luke has been getting a number of tests this morning and is being watched very closely. Jack seems to be doing well - much better than his little brother. I am about to leave work to go see them. The days are so long and busy, but once things slow down a little we will add more pictures and hopefully give daily updates.