Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Fundoplication - not as "fun" as it sounds...
Kyle's still in All Children's Hospital. They have tried several times to wean him off the oxygen and he'll do okay for a little while but then his saturation levels drop again. Last week, they did a scope (through the G-tube) to see what was going on with his reflux since it seems like he can't keep anything down. They saw a couple of instances of reflux while they were in there and are concerned that with his reflux being so severe, he may continue to aspirate into the lungs and get pneumonia again. With his existing lung problems (bronchopulmonary dysplasia) from being on the ventilator so long, he doesn't need the added damage from pneumonia.
The doctors are now discussing possibly doing a procedure called Fundoplication. It is a surgery to essentially wrap the upper curve of the stomach around the esophagus and sew it in place. This strengthens the valve between the esophagus and the stomach which prevents the acid from backing up into the esophagus as easily. The problem with this procedure (and why it's not done lightly - it's a last resort) is that the procedure most of the time makes the child completely inable to burp or vomit - even when they are older. However severe this risk may be, it is not as severe as the risk for damage to his lungs without it.
For those who are curious about the procedure and not too squeamish, here is a link to a site with pictures of the procedure.
We haven't been able to get a straight answer on when (or even a definite if) they are going to do the surgery. It may be this week - it may be several weeks.
The doctors are now discussing possibly doing a procedure called Fundoplication. It is a surgery to essentially wrap the upper curve of the stomach around the esophagus and sew it in place. This strengthens the valve between the esophagus and the stomach which prevents the acid from backing up into the esophagus as easily. The problem with this procedure (and why it's not done lightly - it's a last resort) is that the procedure most of the time makes the child completely inable to burp or vomit - even when they are older. However severe this risk may be, it is not as severe as the risk for damage to his lungs without it.
For those who are curious about the procedure and not too squeamish, here is a link to a site with pictures of the procedure.
We haven't been able to get a straight answer on when (or even a definite if) they are going to do the surgery. It may be this week - it may be several weeks.
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Back at All Children's
Well, he's not in the ICU this time, but Kyle's back at All Children's Hospital. Monday night, Kyle was not his usual cheerful self and couldn't sleep all night (usually he sleeps like a brick through the whole night). He kept fussing and crying no matter how we held him or positioned him. He sounded a little congested late in the night so we tried out the fancy oxygen system they keep forgetting to pick up. (When he was discharged after his stay in February, they thought he was going to go home on oxygen and trained us and gave us the equipment for it, but then they changed their mind and said he didn't need the oxygen at home, after all.) We put it on for a little while (maybe a couple hours) on 0.2 Liters but it didn't seem to improve his mood or breathing, so we turned it off. We were a little apprehensive using it in the first place since technically he doesn't have a prescription for it anymore but it is just oxygen so it wasn't like we were giving him drugs.
Anyway, around the time my alarm was going off for me to get ready for school, I noticed that the back of Kyle's neck felt really warm so I took his temperature. It was 38.8C (102.9F). Just after we took his temperature, monitor went off for high heart rate (tachycardia) which is very abnormal. (Later, found out that the monitor is set to 270+ bpm for high heart rate!) Chris got ready to take Kyle to the emergency room and I called my mom to have her come a little bit earlier to watch Hannah. I know that there's at least one person who's going to read this and think that I should have gone to the emergency room with them but quite frankly, this is not new territory for us and it is important that I not miss school. I knew that it would take about an hour to get to All Children's, another hour to be seen (even with his heart problems), a couple of hours of vitals, labs and scans before they sent an actual doctor in and so on. So I went to school.
When Chris got to the hospital with Kyle and they checked his vitals, his temperature had spiked to 103F and his heart rate was in the 250's. His breaths were between 80-100 breaths a minute. They did a chest x-ray because Kyle was sounding a little crackly in the lungs and found "signs of a slight pneumonia". They decided to administer an antibiotic and admit him.
I left school as soon as class was over and went straight to the hospital. Big surprise... Chris and Kyle were still in the ER exam room waiting to be brought upstairs for admitting. Shortly after I arrived (around 1pm), they brought Kyle up to the third floor, right around the corner from his old room in NICU3. He fell asleep pretty quickly after that. The antibiotics and Tylenol seemed to be doing the trick. When I left around 9:00pm that night (Tuesday), he was sleeping like normal, his heart rate ws back to normal, he had no fever, and his breathes were down to normal. The nurse let me know that Kyle would need to be in for at least 48 hours for them to get his cultures back. It was actually comforting to know some kind of timeline. It drives me nuts wondering "Will they call me and have me pick him up today? tomorrow?".
Yesterday, I wasn't feeling so hot myself (headache, sore throat and slight fever) so I went home after school. Chris went to see Kyle at the hospital and said that he had a fever again and still sounded a little crackly in the lungs so they were going to do another x-ray.
While Chris was there, one of the NICU nurses happened to pass by and see Kyle's name on the door so she stopped in to say hi. After her a couple other nurses that knew Kyle from NICU3 came to see him. He's just Mr. Popularity! They all love him. I think that's why he keeps ending up back at the hospital. He wants to see all his nurse and tech girlfriends!
Anyway, around the time my alarm was going off for me to get ready for school, I noticed that the back of Kyle's neck felt really warm so I took his temperature. It was 38.8C (102.9F). Just after we took his temperature, monitor went off for high heart rate (tachycardia) which is very abnormal. (Later, found out that the monitor is set to 270+ bpm for high heart rate!) Chris got ready to take Kyle to the emergency room and I called my mom to have her come a little bit earlier to watch Hannah. I know that there's at least one person who's going to read this and think that I should have gone to the emergency room with them but quite frankly, this is not new territory for us and it is important that I not miss school. I knew that it would take about an hour to get to All Children's, another hour to be seen (even with his heart problems), a couple of hours of vitals, labs and scans before they sent an actual doctor in and so on. So I went to school.
When Chris got to the hospital with Kyle and they checked his vitals, his temperature had spiked to 103F and his heart rate was in the 250's. His breaths were between 80-100 breaths a minute. They did a chest x-ray because Kyle was sounding a little crackly in the lungs and found "signs of a slight pneumonia". They decided to administer an antibiotic and admit him.
I left school as soon as class was over and went straight to the hospital. Big surprise... Chris and Kyle were still in the ER exam room waiting to be brought upstairs for admitting. Shortly after I arrived (around 1pm), they brought Kyle up to the third floor, right around the corner from his old room in NICU3. He fell asleep pretty quickly after that. The antibiotics and Tylenol seemed to be doing the trick. When I left around 9:00pm that night (Tuesday), he was sleeping like normal, his heart rate ws back to normal, he had no fever, and his breathes were down to normal. The nurse let me know that Kyle would need to be in for at least 48 hours for them to get his cultures back. It was actually comforting to know some kind of timeline. It drives me nuts wondering "Will they call me and have me pick him up today? tomorrow?".
Yesterday, I wasn't feeling so hot myself (headache, sore throat and slight fever) so I went home after school. Chris went to see Kyle at the hospital and said that he had a fever again and still sounded a little crackly in the lungs so they were going to do another x-ray.
While Chris was there, one of the NICU nurses happened to pass by and see Kyle's name on the door so she stopped in to say hi. After her a couple other nurses that knew Kyle from NICU3 came to see him. He's just Mr. Popularity! They all love him. I think that's why he keeps ending up back at the hospital. He wants to see all his nurse and tech girlfriends!
Friday, May 11, 2007
Baby Fat
Last week, I noticed that Kyle's left leg looked swollen out to the side at the calf. When it still looked swollen this Monday, we decided we better check into it - especially since the left leg is the same one that had the clot when he was a week old. I made an appointment at the pediatrician's for Tuesday afternoon. My mom took him to the appointment and was told that they could not determine what it was there in the office so they said he needed to go to the All Children's Emergency Room. Chris and I both left work immediately when we got word from Mom.
After nearly 5 hours at the emergency room, an x-ray and an ultrasound, the doctors came in with the diagnosis: Lipoma. Essentially, he has a deposit of fat in that one area on his left leg. They said as long as it doesn't get any larger, change color or become painful to the touch, we don't need to worry. So all that worry and stress was for a hunk of fat!
After nearly 5 hours at the emergency room, an x-ray and an ultrasound, the doctors came in with the diagnosis: Lipoma. Essentially, he has a deposit of fat in that one area on his left leg. They said as long as it doesn't get any larger, change color or become painful to the touch, we don't need to worry. So all that worry and stress was for a hunk of fat!
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Update
Somehow I'm hanging in there at school but it's been a challenge. I thought for sure that I was going to fail the anatomy & physiology classes but I managed to get an A. Chris says he won't listen when I freak out anymore since I've freaked on almost every final, but have gotten all A's.
Now I'm done with the general education requirement and have moved on to the core classes. Right now I'm taking Essentials of Sonography and Introduction to Pharmacology with our new teacher Mrs. Rudolph. We're still in the first week so we haven't gotten too far along... mostly terminology so far. But today the teacher treated us to a "field trip" to the lab (next door to our classroom) and did an echo on one of my classmates to show what it will be like. It really got us pumped to see the echo done and know that we'll be starting scanning in a couple short weeks, ourselves. When Mrs. Rudolph put the transducer onto my classmate's chest and the image of his heart appeared on the monitor, I was at once excited that I could recognize the mitral valve! This may not seem like a big deal to some of you but considering I didn't know what the mitral valve was until earlier this month.... I'm tickled pink!
In the meantime, Kyle has still got about a million doctor appointments. My mom is taking him to most of the appointments and that's helping quite a bit. It's still exhausting juggling the scheduling of appointments, home health equipment, feeding schedule, insurance, normal monthly bills, household chores, and somewhere in the middle, a life! It doesn't take much to push me over the edge lately. I go three days and need to get out! I've been swing dancing with Jenn a couple of times and even gone out to Ybor a couple of times. But a couple of days of early mornings to get to school, followed by work at school, followed by long drives home, followed by getting feedings, cleaning out the feeding pump, studying, and nights interrupted by loud alarms from the apnea monitor, feeding pump or tempermental alarm clocks and I'm screaming for freedom! Unfortunately freedom in the form of going out with friends and drinking, dancing, eating, etc. usually costs money... which increases the stress on the day to day stuff.
Thursday, March 29, 2007
Bank Problem Fixed
Our bank just reimbursed us today for all the fraudulent charges and fees associated with them. It's still a little rough because we got behind on a few bills because of it. But at least we have money again. Good timing, too, because both cars were almost on empty and we had used the last of the cash to put a few drops in the tanks ($5 doesn't go far at the gas station these days). Oh, and our cell phones are back on.
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