Sunday December 7th: Sunday dawned a new day and we were still admitted to the hospital. I was doing ok. Not having too much pain and only really needing to take Ibuprofen to control it. We ate breakfast and headed up to the NICU.
Colton was still on the ventilator and still had his umbilical IV lines. The neonatologist came in and we discussed the plan for the day. We were going to try to start some feedings and see how well Colton would tolerate it. Well, he didn't. Throughout the day when they would check to see what was left in his tummy before his next feeding he would either have nothing left or he would have a lot more left than what they had given him. By Monday morning it was decided that we would just stop his feedings and try again later. In order to make sure that Colton would get enough nutrition he was started on total parenteral nutrition or TPN. It contains all the nutrients, protein, and fat that he needs to grow and gain weight.
Meanwhile, we were able to wean the settings on his ventilator. He was doing a lot more of the work on his own and wasn't needing so much help doing it. When they wean a setting on the ventilator they do a blood gas afterward to make sure that he was tolerating the turn down of the settings. He was doing pretty good.
We started to see some random movements with his fingers and toes. Both good signs.
Monday December 8th: Today was the day that I was being discharged from the hospital. By 7am I was up pumping and eating breakfast. The doctors came in and said I was ok to go home. We were up in the NICU by 8am to make sure that we were in Colton's room for morning rounds. The doctors and Nurse practitioners walk around the unit on Mondays and Thursdays. It's very odd to be on the other side of those rounds. Normally I am the one doing the talking during these rounds, now I have to sit and listen to them talk about my precious boy. Mondays also mean that the new team of doctors start for the week. We listened to the Doc and NP talk about Colton and what the plan was for the day.
Like I said earlier, Colton hadn't really been tolerating his feedings overnight and the morning belly xray didn't have an gas going through it. With both of those they decided to stop his feedings. His chest Xray showed an area in his right lung that wasn't allowing air exchange to happen well. They adjusted some of the settings on his ventilator to take care of that. They repeated a chest xray in the afternoon and that area was open and was allowing the air exchange.
Dr. B, the geneticist, called and asked what labs had been drawn and asked that the remainder of the labs be drawn. We then found out that some of the labs needed to be given prior authorization from the insurance company prior to being drawn. Colton's insurance had gotten messed up and we had to get that fixed to get the preauthorization done. Nick took care of all of that.
Over the course of the day it was decided that Colton needed to have an MRI of his head to see if there was a reason there that he wasn't moving. The MRI was done Monday night around 10:30pm.
We were discharged from the mother baby unit around 4:30 pm. We moved some of our stuff up to the NICU and then we decided to go home for a little bit and see Marley. We got some new clothes and took showers and headed back to the hospital. Overnight was pretty uneventful. Nick changed his first diaper of Colton's. We were continuing to see some improvement in Colton's movements throughout the day. He was starting to get more feisty when you messed with him. We got a big surprise in the afternoon: We both got to hold him!
I am trying to not overwhelm you and give too much information all at once. Please be patient with us as we try to get everyone caught up. The next post should be either tonight or tomorrow morning. We want to thank everyone for all the prayers and support. Everyone has been wonderful!
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