Day #36 Looks like a long night at the NICU

I am sitting here looking at Trey tying to hold back my tears. I got a phone call at 7:30am from the resident doctor telling me that they had decided to start Trey on antibiotics, again. He had a couple of bradies that were difficult to get him out of. The doctors and the nurses have different perspectives on why his bradies are increasing. The nurses feel that it is due to reflux and nothing needs to be done. They feel that it is a prematurity issue and he will grow out of it. The doctors agree but are afraid that he might have a infection they haven't picked up. The problem being that if he has an infection that it can quickly get out of control. So, the doctors would rather treat him for nothing then have a bigger more serious problem later. Then there is my feelings on the issue. I agree with the nurses but I also don't want him to get an infection. I don't think he has an infection at all but I understand the gravity of the situation. I am also fully aware of the side effects from the antibiotics. Hearing loss being one of them. The reason hearing loss seems more serious to me is because it is more difficult to detect then the other potential problems.

Anyways, here I sit watching him with an IV sticking out of the top of his head. Again, I am hoping that the doctors, nurses and I have made the best decision for Trey. He has been though so much. When is he going to catch a break. I guess I have to try to think positive. Who knows, the antibiotics might do the trick and he might come off the O2 soon and then I will be able to start feeding him soon.

IDK, just keep him in your prayers please.

Day #35 5 Weeks Old TODAY!!!

Sleepy

YEAH!!! 5 weeks

loves his nuk

Awww, daddy loves his little man

Yeah, Our monkey is 5 weeks old today. I can't believe it, wow 5 weeks. He weighed in at 4lbs 4oz tonight. I can't believe that he has nearly doubled his weight. He is getting so big.

Today, the OT lady came to give him a eval. She said that he is doing really well. He has a strong suck reflex and his muscle tone and flexsion is great. Whew!!! Who am I kidding I wasn't worried at all, he is AWESOME!!!! Trey has a fighting spirt just like his mommie. No matter how tough thing look for us we will over come it with a smile on our faces.

So, as some know and others may not Trey is not having any visitors except for Chris and I right now. I am sure that this decision has made some people upset but I have to be honest I am not sorry. The doctors and I came to a decision that we felt was best for my son and that is my job as a parent. To make the best decisions for my son. At-any-rate, I am choosing to explain our decision here so that I can calmly explain myself in a organized manner.

1st and foremost my sons health is at the top of my priority list right now. The doctors were afraid that he was being exposed to too many people. Trey had a bad day where he had 16 brady episodes. The doctors didn't know if they were due to over stimulation or an infection. They have to expect the worse because an infection can kill a preemie in a matter of hours. So, Trey had to be put on 5 days of antibiotics for the MRSA and he was given blood. The decision to place a preemie on antibiotics cannot be taken lightly. The potential side effect can range from organ failure to hearing loss to sepsis. So, they mentioned to me to limit visitors in the hope of limiting his exposure to possible infections. I decided that instead of telling people not to visit that I would ask for people to call me first to make sure it was okay on the perticular day. During this conversation with the doctors they also discussed over stimulation.

It was brought to my attention that there were times when he had visitors and he began to brady afterwards. They believed that it was due to over stimulation. Over stimulation for a preemie can be caused by many things, noise, smells, touching, lights basically you name it. We are couched very heavily by the nurses, doctors, OT and PT about these things and many other issues. Choking, how to bring him out of a brady or apnea spell, how to deal with his many wires. Most visitors haven't and to be honest you don't want the stress of knowing that his little life could be in your hands.

So, I asked to be called before anyone visited him and explained why. I was told that this wasn't a problem and was actually a good idea. I fully expected to get a phone call before visits were made anymore. Well, there were visits made and an absence of a phone call. I was pretty mad. It isn't hard to pick up a phone and there are a hundred reason why he may not need visitors that particular day. I had already explained this once. I felt like not calling to ask if it was okay to visit was a blatant disregard for the health of my son. He may look perfectly healthy but he isn't. He has a compromised immune system, thin skin, hooked up to O2, MRSA blah blah.

So, I understand if there are people that are upset with me but put yourselves in my shoes. What would you do? How would you handle worrying every night and day if you might get a phone call that your son took a turn for the worse. What if you got that phone call and KNEW you could have done something to prevent it, something as simple as limiting visitor. So it is okay to be mad at me now because I promise you will thank me later when he is big and healthy and all the drama of the NICU is a distant memory.

Day #34

I finally called the ortho doctor to make the appointment to schedule my hip surgery. For those of you who don't know I was scheduled to have the surgery the week of Thanksgiving 08'. I found out I was pregnant the week before Thanksgiving. The surgery is to correct a problem I have developed from the previous surgery. I developed a bone growth on the outer and inner part of my hip. The extra bone has extremely limited my range of motion in that hip, actually to the point that it might be one the reason I went into labor early. My hips were unable to spread apart and the baby was unable to drop down. I can't tell you how hard it was for me to make this call. I have tossed up the idea of not having the surgery at all and Chris brought me back to reality and told me how much I needed it. So many things have ran through my mind...how long will it be before I can see Trey? if they MAKE me take pain meds can I pump?, I don't want my supply to drop off, Will they let me see him after major orthopedic surgery? How long before I can walk, UGGGGG My mind is racing in a million different directions. I have to believe that everything will be just fine but I don't have a lot of time to mentally adjust to the situation. My consult for the surgery is next week they will probley schedule the surgery the following week.

Trey is doing really well, no surprise there. They did try to cut his O2 back to 3liters but he starting brading again so they increased it back to 4liters and he is still gaing weight. So, another day has ended and we are another day closer to him coming home.