Joshua – Status Update

March 25, 2026

We received a call from Joshua's Dr. this morning. He had a good evening and because of the good evening, a decision was made to remove Joshua's tube. When asked when the answer was 'now'. Their desire was to have as much time as possible with the day shift to support Joshua in his transition.

When Sue and I made it into the hospital, it was so nice to greet Joshua and see him without the tube. His oxygen wasn't as high as we would like and the nurse gave us feedback that it has been a bit of a challenging transition for Joshua. The hope is that the continued respiratory therapy with the benefit of the cough assist will help Joshua's lungs clear and allow him to successfully transition to independent breathing. An hour after arriving, I see some better numbers on his oxygen. It is a slow process, but we will embrace all the progress we can get. The best thing was seeing the smile on Joshua's face and knowing we can communicate without the letter board.

The day took a scary turn when Joshua had a mucus plug make it impossible for him to keep his oxygen up. When in the ICU, you want few people in your room. At one point, Joshua's room was full of people trying to help him. They were able to stabilize his oxygen in the low 80's while receiving 100% oxygen through his mask. The respiratory therapist continued giving Joshua his treatments to free up the mucus plug. His oxygen level slowly climbed. When he was climbing from 89-90, the doctor prepared us for re-intubation. We were told if he can't stabilize above 90, for his own good they would intubate him while he was stable to make it a better experience. We were so thankful to start seeing a solid 90, followed by a solid 91, followed by a solid 92. By the time he was steady at 94, I felt comfortable asking his doctor if Joshua bought himself more time. The doctor said that Joshua's progress was encouraging and that they would continue to monitor him closely. We are so thankful for the progress he has made and we are praying for continued improvement.

The rest of the night was event free fro Joshua. He even had some rest from the mask and was able to get his oxygen from the high flow nasal cannula for a couple hours before going to bed.

Our prayer for the day is that the adjustments to Joshua's treatment plan without the chest tube will prove sufficient to allow Joshua to successfully transition towards independent breathing.