Week 15 – Day 3 – Happy Groundhog Day

Groundhog Day, and just like in the movie – this day felt like one that I have done over and over and over before. Fighting traffic in the morning to get to the hospital in time to be there for the rounds. Spending the morning with Brendan, the evening with Trevor, eat, pump, sleep in some random order and then repeat again.

The good news though is that they are getting it together at the hospital and Brendan looked a lot better today. During rounds, they decided that they were confident that the respiratory issue has nothing to do with his heart defect so they are going to restart the medications that they had suspended. He will stay on the antibiotic and they will wait to see improvement in his lungs. I requested that they go further in to his GI problems and so they brought in a specialist to analyze his situation. The resident called me to take a history and hopefully tomorrow when I get there, they will have a plan for him, at least for testing.

I spent hours holding him today and he had some good peaceful time. He also had some bad meltdowns where his numbers got crazy and he was hard to bring back to calm. They want to wean him on his oxygen, but would end up just turning it right back up during these phases.

At least Brendan was nice and cool today, resting with a new beanie baby named Wrinkles on the tag.

Trevor got spoiled with another long luxurious bubble bath and some photo taking with Gramma.

Repeat again tomorrow, at least the date will change.

Week 15 – Day 2

I could write a whole book about how emotional and frustrating it is to have an infant in the hospital and all the things that happened this morning, but all along I have tried to focus on the facts and the positives for this blog and I will keep trying. We are stil waiting for more information on Brendan, there is no way to know how long his stay will be or what will be required. His antibiotics are running so hopefully his lungs will get nice and clear and then they can wean him back on the oxygen again.
He had a blow out on his IV in his hand already so they put one in his scalp. His soft little hair had just finally grown back from the last time! They are using Precedex and maybe some Versed to try to keep him calm and comfortable, it really eats at me that he needs to be sedated instead of held for comfort. But I can’t be there around the clock and he has too many appliances attached to hold him right.
I missed the doctors’ rounds this morning, so I will try to be there earlier tomorrow to be able to get a better update. There won’t be too many decisions made until the drugs have had a chance to work.

They piled on tape to try to keep this IV safely in place. Poor Brendan looks like some alien brainsucker is attached.

Trevor is an ongoing source of entertainment and is ready to make me smile as soon as I get home from the hospital.
I needed a Hazmat suit, this baby had a full diaper!!

Making faces at Gramma from his bed

One guess as to what this face means! (The socks are there to keep his head centered because the PT wants us to work on shaping)

Gramma thought he needed a book while he was busy