Surgery Scheduled - Monday July 9th

Bitter sweet... Benson loves his hands and we recognize this as a complete blessing. With his new found love he pulls out his NG (nasogastric) feeding tube far too often. Erik and I have to put back the tube ourselves and even though I've finally stopped crying when I do it these days, it's not fair to Benson. You have probably noticed B wearing mittens or socks on his hands in most of his pictures. We do that to prevent him from pulling out his tube but he's smarter and stronger now, so a G-tube (gastric tube) is our solution. We will access his new tube right on his stomach. The surgeon told us it will look similar to a button. From there we can hook up his food. Some of you might wonder why he even needs a feeding tube. Benson needs about 700 ml a day and currently he's taking about 30 ml by bottle. We are working with him, slowly trying to increase that volume but ultimately he needs more time to coordinate his suck, swallow and breathe. This is not an area we want to rush. Benson has the ability to grow new lung tissue until he's about age 5. Therefore we want to do everything possible to help keep him healthy and growing strong.  We ask you to pray for a smooth and successful surgery.  We promise to give you an update, via this blog, once he's settled back in his recovery room later that afternoon.

Here are a couple short videos of Benson being the sweet boy we know him to be. Theses were taken within the last month.