Hospitalization #12 - Day 4

No real news from today.  We just relaxed and watched some football this afternoon.  I did take him down to the cafeteria for a little bit.  He enjoyed some M&Ms as well as being out of the room!!!

Hospitalization #12 - Day 3

Jennifer is home for the weekend and I am looking forward to taking care of my little man for a few days.  I have several meetings next week, so I will not be able to come to the hospital.

Brett made it through surgery quite nicely.  By the end of the day he felt pretty good.  He was taken off contact precautions so I was able to give him a wagon ride around the floor for a while.  He had a big time flirting with the nurses.  He was blowing kisses and smiling like normal!

They drew more blood tonight to check on other bacteria that may be in his blood.  Nothing definitive yet, so we will just wait and see.  They also had to take out the line that was put in earlier today because it quit working.  They were able to put another line in his other arm.  It is so hard for an infant to keep a line in their arm.

Here are a few pictures from today........

Hospitalization #12 - Day 2

Here we are on day 2 - Brett's blood cultures grew a "gram positive cocci" very quickly. Although it will not be absolutely determined until tomorrow, it is probably the same staph aureus making him septic. He started Vancomycin today and will have his port removed.

Brett is on the operating room schedule for tomorrow morning, so please pray that everything will go smoothly as usual with the anesthesia and the procedure itself. They will place a peripheral IV line in during the procedure that we can use for the antibiotics as long as it lasts. The peripheral IVs tend to fail easily in babies, which is the worst part about not having a central line when you need iV antibiotics. He will need to be treated this way for as many days as possible - they want 5-7 days AFTER they get a negative blood culture. Moreover, Brett will be in the hospital quite awhile. There are various directions his care could take between now and then, so we'll just take it one step at a time.

Our room

 If we have to stay awhile, one good thing is that this time we got a corner room, which is VERY BIG! You can see it in the picture above, and you can see the cool set-up Rob did with our new inflatable bed.

This is the view from our room

One of the most difficult things about having a child in the hospital is actually keeping up with the normal life stuff that doesn't stop for illness - like work, school, and running the household. Just today I dropped Mark off at school, went inside the school to complete re-enrollment for next school year, took Gantt to the doctor (he has pinkeye as well as an ear infection), got his prescriptions filled, went to the insurance company to get more papers needed for school re-enrollment, took Gantt home and got him settled with the sitter, and went to the new house to meet with the designer and the tile people.

Gantt sick with pinkeye and ear infection

After that I drove out to the hospital to relieve Rob so he could "book it" back to school and watch Mark do his special part at chapel today! He then continued on with the childcare and the homework, and the feeding of dinner, and the packing of backpacks and lunches, and putting the kids to bed. We have to tag-team everything.

However, we are so grateful that our home and business are so close to the hospital - especially with us not knowing when we moved here that we would be needing this hospital so often. It takes about 45 minutes to an hour, but there are plenty of families here that live hours and hours away and don't have the luxury of switching off very often or getting to see the kids at home every other day or so. We carefully remember to count our many blessings - including our parents who come up often to help us. Thank you for all your kind words of encouragement and all the prayers going up for Brett. We are grateful for every one!

Hospitalization #12 - Day 1

After stopping antibiotics on Monday, we didn't even make it until our scheduled appointment today at 1:00. This morning Brett woke up with a slight fever, and by 9:00 it was at 101.5. I went ahead and contacted Brett's doctor, and used what I have named "call ahead bedding" (kind of like "call ahead seating"at restaurants!) They had a bed ready right away, so we were able to bypass clinic as well as the emergency room.

When we were admitted, Brett got all the usual tests - blood from his port, peripheral blood from his arm, a viral panel, weight, and 2 rectal temps. The viral swab (which is very uncomfortable) had to be done twice because it was spilled. He felt worse as the afternoon went on, and tonight his temperature reached 103. As soon as the blood culture was taken he was put back on IV antibiotics, so he ought to be feeling better in the next 24 hours. Tomorrow he will probably get another echocardiogram on his heart to check for "vegetation" - settling of the staph infection on his heart. Once the blood cultures show something definitive, the docs will begin discussing a treatment plan.

How Brett's Doing

Brett has been doing extremely well since he was able to come home. He is back to his normal schedule, lasting about 2-3 hours a day including chest PT, inhalers, meds, and breathing treatments.

We have continued the IV antibiotics that were started in the hospital. We had to administer them every 6 hours since Christmas Eve up until yesterday. In the daytime it's not too bad, but we usually go to bed pretty early, so we were getting up at midnight, 12:30, 6 am and 6:30 am to do these. (Since we were on Christmas break, we weren't waking up that early for school). Whenever we get so tired of doing that, we just remind ourselves how much better it is to be able to get it done ourselves, in the comfort of our own home. 

Yesterday was the stop date because his next appointment is tomorrow, and if any live bacteria are still in his system that are just being suppressed by the antibiotic, they will have time to grow. We'll get a blood culture Wednesday (about 48 hours after stopping meds), and wait to see if any bacteria grows in the next 48 hours after that. No bacteria growth will be great, and that's exactly what we're praying for. 

A Faithful Friend

Today we said goodbye to Simba, our loyal pet and faithful friend of 14 years. In cat years, he was 67 years old. We rescued Simba before we were married, and over the years he has been a really great pet.

He has always been really good with the kids.

Here are our attempts to get a good photo of Simba with all the kids - quite unsuccessful, but funny! Rob and Mark are really trying! You can't even SEE Mark in the third photo! These crack me up!

1/1/11

On the first day of the year our friends invited us along to another Carolina Hurricanes game. If you've been reading this blog long enough, you know how we love watching our Canes!

"That's a Carolina Hurricanes goal!"

We beat the New Jersey Devils 5-3. It's always more fun when the kids get more chances to cheer for the goals. A great start to a new year!