James got a call from Ethan's GI doc on Monday. He said Ethan has mild to moderate reflux. We are to just keep doing what we are doing with his meds (he is on a pretty good dose of Prevacid), but unless the pulminologist found anything, we shouldn't have to do more.
Well, James got a call from the pulminologist Tuesday. They found that Ethan has food particles in his lungs. So, they want to do a swallow test to see if he is swallowing correctly. If he isn't swallowing correctly, then we will go from there. If he is swallowing correctly and the food in his lungs is from reflux, then we have an issue. The doctor told James that if it is reflux, we most likely would have to do surgery to get his reflux calmed down so his asthma isn't caused by the reflux. (does that make sense?) Probably not, but a lot of this doesn't to me right now. I am determined not to let him go through a surgery without for sure knowing that we can't control it any other way. If I have to, I will get a 2nd or maybe even 3rd opinion.
I just don't want to have to put my baby through any more. :( I hate this! I hate that he got sick. I hate that he lost weight and the Dr was so concerned. I hate that we had to do the procedure two weeks ago. And now this. Prayers are greatly appreciated right now. I want Ethan to be able to thrive and grow and be just like any other little boy. If this is what we have to do to get there, so be it, but don't think that I won't fight tooth and nail to keep him from having to have surgery!!
Showing posts with label hospital. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hospital. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Update on the boys
So, I think I have finally figured out where the boys got this nasty illness. Grant had an ear infection at his 18 month well-baby check, so he was put on antibiotics. I had to take him back in to the dr for a follow up once we finished those. So, Feb. 28 I took him to the drs office by himself. I remember a little boy in the waiting room that was coughing a lot and coughed on Grant a few times. His grandparents were there with him and got mad at him for coughing on Grant, but I didn't think anything about it at the time.
Fast-forward to March 4. Grant started not feeling well and it just progressed from there. I probably should have gotten the boys in to the the doctor sooner, but I just didn't want to have to lug them in there to tell me to just let them sleep and they will get better eventually. Been there, done that.
I just didn't expect that when we did get them in to the dr they would be as bad as they were. Oh well... we are here now and there is no going back.
Actually, only 1 is "here" as in the hospital now. Ethan is the only one left. Both Alex and Grant got to go home! Grant went home on Monday the 14th and Alex went home today, the 16th. I hope that tomorrow is good to us and Ethan can go home. We will see.
The boys will all be on nighttime oxygen at home, but that is not a huge deal to us. We had Ethan on o2 at home till he was just 2weeks past 1 year old. Not a big deal. We just have to make sure they keep the nasal cannula in their noses all night.
I will have some pictures of the boys here in the hospital at the end of the post for those of you not on Facebook with me.
I have to say a HUGE thank you for all the prayers and thoughts. It means so much to us that we have such a huge base of prayerful people lifting us up. It really does keep me going! Especially when I am living on only 4 hours or so of sleep each night.
I also must say thank you to my mom, James' mom, and Nana (Mary Jane Fox) who have helped out by staying at the hospital with us and by taking care of the boys at home!! I couldn't do it without you three!! (Nana is the boys' adopted Grandma here since neither of our parents live here).
So, that is the update, now for the pictures.
We got checked in to the ER and this is what we looked like till we got cribs for the boys. It was rough sitting like this. They did not feel well. At least we got to watch Barney... over, and over, and over, and over again!!
Alex and Ethan were finally laid down to sleep in a crib together. It wasn't bad. They were exhausted and didn't care the other was in the bed. Unfortunately they couldn't stay that way.
Once Grant got a bit of o2 on him, he was like a new little boy. He was jumping around and playing in his crib in the ER. You wouldn't have known he was really sick!!
Alex finally got up the energy to play a little bit in his crib with a truck for the first time on Saturday.
Then he played with the truck in my lap.
I didn't know that they had highchairs we could us, so i created a makeshift highchair from the carseat Alex had to use in the ambulance. (I didn't know that they had to be in carseats in an ambulance, but they do.)
For the first couple of nights Alex would NOT sleep in the crib the hospital had. I think he viewed it as a torture chamber since that is where he was held down to be suctioned and diapers changed, and other things. He couldn't handle it. Well, I was running so low on sleep cause he wouldn't sleep but on one of us that one of the nurses suggested a normal hospital bed. Well, we tried it. IT WORKED!! He would sit on it, sleep on it, etc all by himself!! It was a life saver for me.
Ethan finally took a bit of solid food (i.e. Cheerios) on the 13th. It was the first time in about 3-4 days.
That same night he decided to block out all the nurses/lights/mommy and daddy by putting his arm up over his eyes. He just wanted everyone to quit touching him. It will actually be a while before these boys lets strangers near them again! :( Which does not bode well for when we get back to Church.
Alex sat up and played and played with toys in his bed!! He liked having a big boy bed. I hope this is a good sign for the future.
He loved to play with the controller to the tv too. The buttons are hard to push so we didn't have to worry about him changing the channel or calling the nurse by accident!! :)
Tuesday, Ethan finally sat up and started playing some in his crib. We were excited.
He then got a room air challenge where he was off his o2, so we were just connected to the pulse-ox. So, I let him play on the floor. He tried crawling away a couple of times and loved being out of the confines of the crib!!
Fast-forward to March 4. Grant started not feeling well and it just progressed from there. I probably should have gotten the boys in to the the doctor sooner, but I just didn't want to have to lug them in there to tell me to just let them sleep and they will get better eventually. Been there, done that.
I just didn't expect that when we did get them in to the dr they would be as bad as they were. Oh well... we are here now and there is no going back.
Actually, only 1 is "here" as in the hospital now. Ethan is the only one left. Both Alex and Grant got to go home! Grant went home on Monday the 14th and Alex went home today, the 16th. I hope that tomorrow is good to us and Ethan can go home. We will see.
The boys will all be on nighttime oxygen at home, but that is not a huge deal to us. We had Ethan on o2 at home till he was just 2weeks past 1 year old. Not a big deal. We just have to make sure they keep the nasal cannula in their noses all night.
I will have some pictures of the boys here in the hospital at the end of the post for those of you not on Facebook with me.
I have to say a HUGE thank you for all the prayers and thoughts. It means so much to us that we have such a huge base of prayerful people lifting us up. It really does keep me going! Especially when I am living on only 4 hours or so of sleep each night.
I also must say thank you to my mom, James' mom, and Nana (Mary Jane Fox) who have helped out by staying at the hospital with us and by taking care of the boys at home!! I couldn't do it without you three!! (Nana is the boys' adopted Grandma here since neither of our parents live here).
So, that is the update, now for the pictures.
We got checked in to the ER and this is what we looked like till we got cribs for the boys. It was rough sitting like this. They did not feel well. At least we got to watch Barney... over, and over, and over, and over again!!
Alex and Ethan were finally laid down to sleep in a crib together. It wasn't bad. They were exhausted and didn't care the other was in the bed. Unfortunately they couldn't stay that way.
Once Grant got a bit of o2 on him, he was like a new little boy. He was jumping around and playing in his crib in the ER. You wouldn't have known he was really sick!!
Alex finally got up the energy to play a little bit in his crib with a truck for the first time on Saturday.
Then he played with the truck in my lap.
I didn't know that they had highchairs we could us, so i created a makeshift highchair from the carseat Alex had to use in the ambulance. (I didn't know that they had to be in carseats in an ambulance, but they do.)
For the first couple of nights Alex would NOT sleep in the crib the hospital had. I think he viewed it as a torture chamber since that is where he was held down to be suctioned and diapers changed, and other things. He couldn't handle it. Well, I was running so low on sleep cause he wouldn't sleep but on one of us that one of the nurses suggested a normal hospital bed. Well, we tried it. IT WORKED!! He would sit on it, sleep on it, etc all by himself!! It was a life saver for me.
Ethan finally took a bit of solid food (i.e. Cheerios) on the 13th. It was the first time in about 3-4 days.
That same night he decided to block out all the nurses/lights/mommy and daddy by putting his arm up over his eyes. He just wanted everyone to quit touching him. It will actually be a while before these boys lets strangers near them again! :( Which does not bode well for when we get back to Church.
Alex sat up and played and played with toys in his bed!! He liked having a big boy bed. I hope this is a good sign for the future.
He loved to play with the controller to the tv too. The buttons are hard to push so we didn't have to worry about him changing the channel or calling the nurse by accident!! :)
Tuesday, Ethan finally sat up and started playing some in his crib. We were excited.
He then got a room air challenge where he was off his o2, so we were just connected to the pulse-ox. So, I let him play on the floor. He tried crawling away a couple of times and loved being out of the confines of the crib!!
Saturday, March 12, 2011
All three boys are in the hospital with respitory infections
So we went in to the drs office this morning because the boys have been miserable all week. I figured it'd be a quick in and out. But no. The boys' oxygen levels were all really low so we had to come to the children's hospital. Alex was transported from the drs in an ambulance cause his o2 level was in the mid 70s and that is BAD!
So we got checked in and Grant and Ethan were checked in too. The are all needing quite a bit of o2 help to keep in the ok level. I don't know when we will be out of here since Ethan and Alex both have RSV. Grant just has a REALLY REALLY REALLY bad cold. I'll update when I can once I know more.
So we got checked in and Grant and Ethan were checked in too. The are all needing quite a bit of o2 help to keep in the ok level. I don't know when we will be out of here since Ethan and Alex both have RSV. Grant just has a REALLY REALLY REALLY bad cold. I'll update when I can once I know more.
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Video on RMHC website
Oh my gosh. One of my friends on facebook directed me to this video on the Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children's website. I went to their home page to find it, and WHAM!... we are on the page front and center!!! It is a pretty good video. The friend is also in the video too with her precious family and little boy that was in the NICU with our boys. This was taken just after the boys turned 1 year.
The webpage for RMHC is http://rockymountainhospitalforchildren.com/.
I didn't realize their hair looked so bad!! Oh well.
The webpage for RMHC is http://rockymountainhospitalforchildren.com/.
I didn't realize their hair looked so bad!! Oh well.
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Prematurity Awareness Day
15 months ago Alex, Grant, and Ethan were born premature. Very premature. Ethan is/was considered a micropreemie, since he was so small. March of Dimes is working on research trying to find causes and cures for premature birth.
We know why we had to give birth to these boys early, since Ethan had a flow issue in his cord. However, we don't know why that was a problem and what caused it. We can only speculate.
I am so thankful to Presbyterian/St. Luke's that they did a WONDERFUL job at keeping these boys healthy and sending them home with us.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
In the Hospital Until They Come Out...
Yes, you read correctly. I am in the hospital now until the God decides that it is time for the boys to be born. I'll explain why in the recap of yesterday below...
It was a very, VERY long day yesterday. (It still really hasn't ended for me, cause I can't sleep in this bed.) I came to the hospital for my nurse/office visit at 3:00 pm. Everything looked great there. My blood pressure was 116/74, not protein or glucose in my urine, my weight gain was ok (only 2 lbs) and everything else looked just fine. We chatted with the nurse just like we would be going home at the end of the day.
At 4:00 pm we stepped inside the ultrasound room. They did growth checks on all the babies and here is what they found. In the 1-day-short-of 2 weeks, Baby A went from 1lb 5oz to 1lb 10oz. Baby B went from 1lb 7oz to 1lb 14oz. Baby C went from 14oz to 1lb (or 16oz).
Baby C finally showed us his heart and it looked really good. He also waved at us a couple of times as we first started looking at him. However, when they went to measure the (I think) diastolic pressure in his umbilical cord, it was absent. (I think I am getting these terms right. It was a lot of medical jargon that I am not used to.) Basically, in layman's terms, he is having trouble pumping blood out and to the placenta. It is resisting him for some reason. This is the reason he is small.
"What can be done about this?" you may ask. Well, not really anything to cure it. They admitted me to the hospital to regulate how much I am on my feet and so they can monitor the babies 3 times a day.
Basically, Baby C is going to have this issue from now on. Dr. P wants us to try and eek out another 4 weeks that he can grow. Then when C decides that he needs to come out, all 3 of them will have to come out. Dr. P said it's not if Baby C gets sick, its WHEN Baby C gets sick (or stops growing) that they will bring them out. (We just hope it is at least 4 weeks from now and not any sooner.)
The other issue that we have is since the placenta is acting up, it is also putting bad stuff into my body. Putting me at a much greater risk for Pre-eclampsia (click on the word for information). Since I also have a history of this in my family, that puts me at a greater risk also. So, they want to closely monitor me for this.
Dr. P ordered that I go swimming 2 times a day, at 10am and 3pm (the hospital has a pool!). I told him that was great!! (That's way more than I would be able to go on my own.) He said that the swimming will help push some of the nasty stuff that we are all getting out and keep the swelling down a lot. Hopefully this works (as it seems to be working well with me just at home, so 2 times a day here should work wonders.)
So, I was allowed to go home and gather my stuff and go out to eat one last time with James before I had to check in. We went to Olive Garden and stuffed ourselves. It was hard to leave Jet at home, because I know he is going to miss me like crazy since I have basically been home with him every day.
I checked in at 8:00 pm and we did a mountain of paperwork. We monitored the boys for the first time (an hour each time we do it) and they all looked good. Though they did say that you could see that C was having a more difficult time than his brothers. I then got swabbed for Strep B, got a steroid shot (which will help the babies develop faster), and had my blood drawn for a couple of lab tests.
The nurse finally left me to go to sleep at 11:30pm. I was sooooo exhausted, or so I thought. I tried to get comfortable on this bed, but it has this weird airbed feature that inflates and deflates every-single-time I move. It got very annoying and the nurse didn't show me how to turn it off. So, I have been up quite a bit and now it is 6:00 am Thursday and I have probably only gotten 2-3 hours of sleep. I guess I will have to nap quite a bit today.
So, long post, I know, but I thought some splainin' was needed. I am at Presbyterian/St. Luke's hospital and I am allowed visitors. However, no one under 18 is allowed due to the threat of H1N1 still. If you want to come visit, just give either James or I a call on our cell phones and let one of us know. (James will be working still, but he will call me if anyone calls him.)
We appreciate all the thoughts and prayers. God can do great things and we just pray that C continues to grow for a while longer.
It was a very, VERY long day yesterday. (It still really hasn't ended for me, cause I can't sleep in this bed.) I came to the hospital for my nurse/office visit at 3:00 pm. Everything looked great there. My blood pressure was 116/74, not protein or glucose in my urine, my weight gain was ok (only 2 lbs) and everything else looked just fine. We chatted with the nurse just like we would be going home at the end of the day.
At 4:00 pm we stepped inside the ultrasound room. They did growth checks on all the babies and here is what they found. In the 1-day-short-of 2 weeks, Baby A went from 1lb 5oz to 1lb 10oz. Baby B went from 1lb 7oz to 1lb 14oz. Baby C went from 14oz to 1lb (or 16oz).
Baby C finally showed us his heart and it looked really good. He also waved at us a couple of times as we first started looking at him. However, when they went to measure the (I think) diastolic pressure in his umbilical cord, it was absent. (I think I am getting these terms right. It was a lot of medical jargon that I am not used to.) Basically, in layman's terms, he is having trouble pumping blood out and to the placenta. It is resisting him for some reason. This is the reason he is small.
"What can be done about this?" you may ask. Well, not really anything to cure it. They admitted me to the hospital to regulate how much I am on my feet and so they can monitor the babies 3 times a day.
Basically, Baby C is going to have this issue from now on. Dr. P wants us to try and eek out another 4 weeks that he can grow. Then when C decides that he needs to come out, all 3 of them will have to come out. Dr. P said it's not if Baby C gets sick, its WHEN Baby C gets sick (or stops growing) that they will bring them out. (We just hope it is at least 4 weeks from now and not any sooner.)
The other issue that we have is since the placenta is acting up, it is also putting bad stuff into my body. Putting me at a much greater risk for Pre-eclampsia (click on the word for information). Since I also have a history of this in my family, that puts me at a greater risk also. So, they want to closely monitor me for this.
Dr. P ordered that I go swimming 2 times a day, at 10am and 3pm (the hospital has a pool!). I told him that was great!! (That's way more than I would be able to go on my own.) He said that the swimming will help push some of the nasty stuff that we are all getting out and keep the swelling down a lot. Hopefully this works (as it seems to be working well with me just at home, so 2 times a day here should work wonders.)
So, I was allowed to go home and gather my stuff and go out to eat one last time with James before I had to check in. We went to Olive Garden and stuffed ourselves. It was hard to leave Jet at home, because I know he is going to miss me like crazy since I have basically been home with him every day.
I checked in at 8:00 pm and we did a mountain of paperwork. We monitored the boys for the first time (an hour each time we do it) and they all looked good. Though they did say that you could see that C was having a more difficult time than his brothers. I then got swabbed for Strep B, got a steroid shot (which will help the babies develop faster), and had my blood drawn for a couple of lab tests.
The nurse finally left me to go to sleep at 11:30pm. I was sooooo exhausted, or so I thought. I tried to get comfortable on this bed, but it has this weird airbed feature that inflates and deflates every-single-time I move. It got very annoying and the nurse didn't show me how to turn it off. So, I have been up quite a bit and now it is 6:00 am Thursday and I have probably only gotten 2-3 hours of sleep. I guess I will have to nap quite a bit today.
So, long post, I know, but I thought some splainin' was needed. I am at Presbyterian/St. Luke's hospital and I am allowed visitors. However, no one under 18 is allowed due to the threat of H1N1 still. If you want to come visit, just give either James or I a call on our cell phones and let one of us know. (James will be working still, but he will call me if anyone calls him.)
We appreciate all the thoughts and prayers. God can do great things and we just pray that C continues to grow for a while longer.
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