Ups and Downs

Sorry to those who try to contact us in the last few days.  We didn't mean to drop off the face of the earth, we were just a bit worried about Little Bear so we were at the hospital more.  Around last Wed. or Thursday, Little Bear was splitting up his milk more often, Nurses worried that they are feeding him too much at one and started a continuous feed.  We were still holding him every night.  On Friday night they told us that he is showing some sign or infection so they took a bit of blood for testing and started an iv to give him some medication and also his blood test came back to have low blood cell so they will give him a blood transfusion.  Nothing to out of ordinary for these little guys and we still hold him for an hour.  At the end of the hours he was having some brada cardias same as in the couple of days passed.  We didn't think anything of it.  The nurses was starting to talk to us letting him try breast feeding in couple of weeks starting slowly so we were very happy thinking he might come home in a month's time and planning to start on his room ( you all know how bad of a procrastinator Craig and I are).

On Sat. (Nov 14) Craig started to prep for putting test color on the wall while waiting at home to the stove we got on Wed. (I'll talk about that in another post) and I was out with my mom looking for drapes or fabrics for drapes for the baby room Craig got a call from the hospital that Little bear isn't doing too well.  Little bear's stomach is bloated and he's in pain when they touch him in the abdomen.  They also think his in pain while breathing and so he doesn't want to breath and therefore are desating lots and had quite a few bradies.  They have moved him back to level III and put him on pain killer and intubated him.  Craig called me on my cell immediately to inform me what they said but advised that there is no need to come home right away as the stove haven't show up yet.  I tried to keep browsing but just couldn't and throw the potential candidate back on the shelves and come home.  While I was driving home (the store is only 5 minutes away), I got calls from Craig that I couldn't answer.  I got home finding the stove have arrived and Craig had got another phone call from the doctor on duty to go into the hospital and they have called a sergeant for consult.  We were very worried and got ready at once to drive to the hospital.  

When we were got to the hospital the doctor came to talk to us.  He think the lower part Little bear's large intestine is either partially blocked or twisted.  X-ray showed lots of gas but he was still stooling and there is no blood in the stool.  As he was in so much pain and had so much breathing issue, we couldn't hold him.  They told us that they have also put in a larger OG tube (#8) to drain the gas in little bear's stomach.  We were told that surgery is likely needed to correct this and there is nothing we can do but wait.  They told us in any case they are withholding feeds so he won't get worse.  It was around 4pm in the afternoon and we were told the sergeant said he will be there before 6pm to talk to us.  There was nothing we can do but wait.  The sergeant did not show up at 6 we left about 7pm to go find something to eat and got back to the hospital around 8pm

At 9pm the sergeant showed up. He looked at the x-ray and asked us a few questions said he thinks this is not serious enough as the require surgery as Little bear was still stooling that afternoon he doesn't not think there is any blockage, he wants to wait and do a contrast enema on Monday to see.  Mean while he wants x-ray daily to monitor his gut.

On Sunday nothing improved.  They put Little bear on higher dose of pain killer as they think he's still in pain. x-ray still show large amount of gas just shifted a bit.  

On Monday: still nothing was changed a contrast enema was not done.  I couldn't understand what was going on.  I asked the nurses a few too many questions and they advise they can not answer some of those questions and I should come for rounds on Tuesday.

On Tuesday: I got to the hospital at 10 am but missed rounds.  Jen, a nurse practitioner, came and talk to me after rounds and told me they believe Little Bear have stage 2 Necrotizing Enterocolitis  (NEC).  Since there is no blood in the stool and x-ray dose not show sign of bowel perforation,  the treatment is to withhold feed for 7-10 days while monitoring him.  If he is doing well, not surgery will be needed.  They would do a contrast enema at the end to make sure everything is okay before start feeding slowly.  They said that the contrast might irritate the bowel when it is inflamed so they do not want to perform that right now. 

On Wed (Nov 18): Made it to rounds finally.  Was a bit more relaxed as they took Little Bear off the pain killer on Tuesday evening.  Was questioning how they come up with NEC as it was ruled out on Sat.  As little bear is breathing better they plan to intubate him.  I left around 12 to go to Greg's to get some stuff scanned and afterwards to buy a freezer.  We did not have any more freezer space for milk and it seem a waste to throw it away.  After freezer shopping (didn't want to deal with sales person who think they can pull wool over my eyes on a large purchase just because I am a girl) I drop Greg off and when downtown to clean out my office.  Met Craig at my office as I needed his help to carry things to the car.  We return to hospital afterwards to see Little bear.  I needed to pump badly as I was in such a rush that I couldn't pump since I left the hospital but I wanted to say hi to little bear before going to pump.  We were surprised that Little bear is not on any breathing support.  Apparently they put him back on regular nose prompt after they extubated him but he pull it off.  Since he wasn't desating, they left him to breath on his own.  Craig was able to hold Little bear while I pump.  When I got back, Little bear was desating so they had to bag him and put him back into his isolett.  Both Craig and I are happy that he no longer needs breath support if it's just for a little while.  

I am going to wash up and go visit with Little bear now.  He's given us a big scare but we think now he might pull out of this one just fine.