Hello friends & family,

I hope y'all are doing well! We are planning to head to PA/DE tomorrow for a few appointments with Melvin's specialists in DE this week & wanted to keep you all updated. First of all, he has been doing so well with the changes we made this year so far. He is still off the ventilator all awake hours & now off for his nap as well! He is still on at night with minimal settings. We have an appointment for a heart catherization which is scheduled for Tuesday, July 7th, at AI DuPont Hospital, which will give his specialists more of an idea of how his heart is progressing. They will use the results of the cath to see if he needs the trach for another winter or not. If they think his heart isn't quite ready to do without the ventilator at night we will likely just keep the trach until next summer. His pulmonologist explained to me that if they would take the trach out too soon we could potentially run into lots of other problems like sleep apnea, etc. Of course, we would love if we could take out the trach this summer but we are trusting in God's perfect timing for that.

This will be a short update since there is lots of work to be done getting ready for a trip... I will update y'all once we are home again, & until then we are so thankful for all your prayers for safety, staying healthy & away from the virus, & for everyone that we're working with to keep Melvin's best interest in mind.

Love & hugs,
The Stoltzfus family