Melbourne

What follows regarding Josh is in effect mostly hear-say, so I'll keep it brief...

Josh had a temperature on and off all week, including the Saturday evening he arrived in Melbourne. HBOT commenced last Monday, with 2 hour sessions in the chamber, twice daily. He seemed to cope fine, not requiring any more suctioning than usual, and got "restless" toward the end of a session. The pressure in the tank was increased slightly on Thursday, but turned back down when it was apparent Josh had bloodshot eyes.

Saturday morning he was taken to the Children's Hospital, since the medical centre was closed, as there were concerns about his breathing, increased stiffness (which we had been noticing for a couple of weeks before treatment started), and his temperature.

He was admitted immediately, and later transferred to ICU, where they've been trying to not only determine if Josh has a respiratory infection, but also understand his breathing and manage his secretions.

There was talk almost immediately of Josh being flown back to Sydney by air ambulance, so I remained here. Originally that was scheduled tentatively for Tuesday, but this has now been changed to Wednesday. Again, his breathing and secretions need to be understood and stabilised before he can be considered for transport. He was on a BiPAP machine for a period of time, and as far as I know, is now only on a oxygen mask.

Its horrible being so far away.

I feel Josh will get through this, as he has done the last few months. But I also fear that this may be a regular occurrence...

The last few days have been extremely emotional (particularly for me) in more ways than I can say here, with of course the obvious being Josh and being so far away, but also other highs and lows concerning my kids.

However, as we do, we take another big breath, pull our shoulders back, and walk on.