Well, Aiden sure does keep us on our toes.
Wednesday morning, he had a seizure. It was completely unexpected, and had the doctors and nurses confused as to why it happened. So, since then he’s undergone just about every test known to man, with the results all coming back negative. Finally, it showed up that one of his IV’s had an infection in it. The next morning, after more results had come back, it was determined that it wasn’t the IV that had the infection in it, the infection was in his blood stream. Neurologists came in and looked him over and he had an EEG done, which came back clear. After that, the doctors did a lumbar puncture (spinal tap) to make sure that it wasn’t meningitis-related and to make sure it wasn’t in his spinal fluid. Thankfully, that test came back negative.
Then, he had a CT scan done to make sure that the infection hadn’t spread to his brain, and to rule out a couple of other reasons for why it could have happened. The CT scan showed no infection in the brain, but did show some spots that had blood where they weren’t expecting to find it. They ordered an MRI to get a better picture of what was going on. Because of his condition, and how people react to anesthetics, the MRI technician and the anesthetist felt it would be for the best to re-intubate him, because they were afraid that once they anesthetized him, he would stop breathing. The MRI was done, and he slept for the rest of the night.
Yesterday morning, he woke up and realised that he had a tube down his throat. He was PISSED. He started crying, and got so upset that he started turning red, then purple and finally blue. We got him calmed down, bathed him, and then he spent the rest of the day sleeping. He woke up mid-afternoon and started grabbing for the tube, and was finally extubated last night around ten.
The MRI results showed what the CT scan had showed. There were spots of blood in the middle of his brain. At this point, the doctors don’t seem concerned and have explained that they are going to keep an eye on it because it could settle and go away on it’s own, which is what we’re hoping happens, or it could settle and block the drainage path for the other fluids to pass. If the latter happens, they will bring in the Neurologist again and it may require surgery to have it drained. But, they’ve stressed that it is not something we should be concerned with at the moment because it doesn’t seem to be affecting him in any way, and to concentrate on the fact that he’s happy, healthy and having great days.
Today, he’s been grumpy but otherwise rock solid. We were able to hold him for a few hours today, and it seems like that’s about the only thing that calms him down once he starts getting himself worked up. He’ll be completely weaned off the Morphine sometime over the night, and then tomorrow the plan is to have him moved upstairs, provided there’s a room available and he stays this stable.
Happy Halloween!
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Fixed!
The little man had a big day yesterday. The surgeons finally deemed him fit to proceed with the surgery, so he went in at 2:30, and was out by 4:30. The surgery itself only took an hour, which surprised everyone. (We had been told to expect it to go until “around 6:00″, so when the surgeon came out that soon, we were expecting her to tell us that they’d been delayed and were just starting now, or that they’d encountered one of the problems that she’d mentioned earlier and it was going to take longer than originally anticipated.)
Everything went well, they didn’t encounter anything they weren’t expecting to see, and they were able to repair it using the existing diaphragm wall, rather than having to put in a patch of Gortex, so that was a huge relief. Not only are his chances of re-herniation a lot lower, but now there’s a much less risk of infection and we likely won’t have to come for quite as many follow up appointments.
He was put back on the oscillation ventilator after the surgery, because his carbon dioxide levels were coming back a little high. But, the doctors are talking about switching him back onto the conventional ventilator sometime this afternoon, provided his blood work continues coming back “perfect”.
The next step is starting him on some “real” food. So far, his diet has consisted of a bag of “hamster food” (some concoction of vitamins and minerals and etc.) and “hamster fat” (lipids), so here’s to hoping his body doesn’t reject the breast milk, because one of his requirements of being able to come home is “sufficiently eating and gaining weight”. And, here’s to hoping that he catches on the mechanics of feeding quickly because the fact that we have to replace his feeding tube, should he pull it out, creeps me right out.
They kept him sedated and muscle relaxed overnight, but stopped that this morning. So, he’s been slowly waking up. He’s still keeping his eyes closed, but he’s been moving and responding to touch for most of the day. He’s tried opening his eyes a couple of times, but it looks like he’s still a little too out of it. (Maybe tomorrow.) I stand corrected — Jason just came out of the room saying that he’s awake. Yay!
Other than that, he’s been doing well. He’s happy when he’s left alone and not messed with, and he likes blowing (spit) bubbles.
Everything went well, they didn’t encounter anything they weren’t expecting to see, and they were able to repair it using the existing diaphragm wall, rather than having to put in a patch of Gortex, so that was a huge relief. Not only are his chances of re-herniation a lot lower, but now there’s a much less risk of infection and we likely won’t have to come for quite as many follow up appointments.
He was put back on the oscillation ventilator after the surgery, because his carbon dioxide levels were coming back a little high. But, the doctors are talking about switching him back onto the conventional ventilator sometime this afternoon, provided his blood work continues coming back “perfect”.
The next step is starting him on some “real” food. So far, his diet has consisted of a bag of “hamster food” (some concoction of vitamins and minerals and etc.) and “hamster fat” (lipids), so here’s to hoping his body doesn’t reject the breast milk, because one of his requirements of being able to come home is “sufficiently eating and gaining weight”. And, here’s to hoping that he catches on the mechanics of feeding quickly because the fact that we have to replace his feeding tube, should he pull it out, creeps me right out.
They kept him sedated and muscle relaxed overnight, but stopped that this morning. So, he’s been slowly waking up. He’s still keeping his eyes closed, but he’s been moving and responding to touch for most of the day. He’s tried opening his eyes a couple of times, but it looks like he’s still a little too out of it. (Maybe tomorrow.) I stand corrected — Jason just came out of the room saying that he’s awake. Yay!
Other than that, he’s been doing well. He’s happy when he’s left alone and not messed with, and he likes blowing (spit) bubbles.
Friday, October 8, 2010
Welcome to the world, little man!
Aiden Joseph was welcomed into the world on Friday, October 8th, 2010 at 9:37pm via cesarean section after 24 hours of labour. He was too unstable to get “official” measurements, but he estimated to be 7lbs, 7oz and “20-ish” inches long.
At my 40 week appointment, I was showing no signs of being ready to go into labour on my own, and my ultrasound was showing that Aiden had “stopped growing”, so the doctor decided to book an induction for the next week. The next day, his office called back and let me know that it was scheduled for the next Thursday, October 7th, at 4:00pm. I arrived at the hospital early, got checked in and headed up to the labour and delivery floor. I got settled into a labour room, and waited. The doctor finally came in at 8:30 to start the process. After a couple of hours, I still wasn’t feeling anything so they moved me to another room to sleep for the night and they would start again the next morning.
I woke up around 3:00am because I was having constant contractions. I tried timing them, but they were too on top of each other to be able to distinguish them. I finally called the nurse, and was moved back into another (MUCH nicer) labour room. A doctor came in to check me, and break my water just after 5:00am, and I finally requested an epidural around 7:00am. Between doctor’s and nurses coming in to check on me, I spent majority of my day sleeping. Around 6:00pm, a doctor came in to check me again and said that if I wasn’t any further dilated, then he was going to strongly recommend a cesarean. He checked, and apologized. I was still just between 2 and 3 centimeters dilated. He said that the cesarean was a good idea at that point because neither of us were in distress, and once labour has hit the 24 hour mark it can cause distress to the mom or the baby, so they wanted him out before that started happening because his birth was going to be difficult anyway.
They brought me over to the operating room around 8:30 to get me prepped and to top up my epidural for the surgery. Jason decided to wait in the waiting room for me, as he figured he would pass out and be in the way, so my mom came in the room with me. The feeling of the cesarean was weird, because one of the doctors was telling me what they were doing, but all I could feel was pressure. Finally, he said that they were going to be pulling Aiden out, and I would feel a lot of pressure on my chest. It felt like they were rocking me, and then I heard a squawk of protest. They wrapped him in a blanket and quickly brought him up to my face so I could see him, then they brought him into the next room to start stabilizing him to be transferred to SickKids.
I was given Gravol after the surgery, so I don’t remember much after it. We asked if Jason could see him before being transferred. It took a couple of hours, but they finally brought both of us over to the room that he was in so we could see him. We got a couple of pictures, and then we were brought back to the recovery room. Not too long after that, they were ready to transfer him, so we were brought over to the hallway that they were going to go down so that we could say good-bye, and so that our parents could see him, but he was too unstable and the battery pack on the transfer unit was too short to be able to stop.
He was admitted to SickKids around 1:30 Saturday morning, and within 20-30 minutes of being here, the doctors had him stable and pink.
At my 40 week appointment, I was showing no signs of being ready to go into labour on my own, and my ultrasound was showing that Aiden had “stopped growing”, so the doctor decided to book an induction for the next week. The next day, his office called back and let me know that it was scheduled for the next Thursday, October 7th, at 4:00pm. I arrived at the hospital early, got checked in and headed up to the labour and delivery floor. I got settled into a labour room, and waited. The doctor finally came in at 8:30 to start the process. After a couple of hours, I still wasn’t feeling anything so they moved me to another room to sleep for the night and they would start again the next morning.
I woke up around 3:00am because I was having constant contractions. I tried timing them, but they were too on top of each other to be able to distinguish them. I finally called the nurse, and was moved back into another (MUCH nicer) labour room. A doctor came in to check me, and break my water just after 5:00am, and I finally requested an epidural around 7:00am. Between doctor’s and nurses coming in to check on me, I spent majority of my day sleeping. Around 6:00pm, a doctor came in to check me again and said that if I wasn’t any further dilated, then he was going to strongly recommend a cesarean. He checked, and apologized. I was still just between 2 and 3 centimeters dilated. He said that the cesarean was a good idea at that point because neither of us were in distress, and once labour has hit the 24 hour mark it can cause distress to the mom or the baby, so they wanted him out before that started happening because his birth was going to be difficult anyway.
They brought me over to the operating room around 8:30 to get me prepped and to top up my epidural for the surgery. Jason decided to wait in the waiting room for me, as he figured he would pass out and be in the way, so my mom came in the room with me. The feeling of the cesarean was weird, because one of the doctors was telling me what they were doing, but all I could feel was pressure. Finally, he said that they were going to be pulling Aiden out, and I would feel a lot of pressure on my chest. It felt like they were rocking me, and then I heard a squawk of protest. They wrapped him in a blanket and quickly brought him up to my face so I could see him, then they brought him into the next room to start stabilizing him to be transferred to SickKids.
I was given Gravol after the surgery, so I don’t remember much after it. We asked if Jason could see him before being transferred. It took a couple of hours, but they finally brought both of us over to the room that he was in so we could see him. We got a couple of pictures, and then we were brought back to the recovery room. Not too long after that, they were ready to transfer him, so we were brought over to the hallway that they were going to go down so that we could say good-bye, and so that our parents could see him, but he was too unstable and the battery pack on the transfer unit was too short to be able to stop.
He was admitted to SickKids around 1:30 Saturday morning, and within 20-30 minutes of being here, the doctors had him stable and pink.
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