Wednesday, May 19th, 2010

The photo says it all, I am on the mend! I had a great sleep - from 10 pm to 6 am. Mommy didn't sleep quite so well with the nurses coming in and out all night. During the night they continued to reduce my oxygen levels and I kept getting the IV fluids. At 7 am, Aunt Kristin stopped by with coffee and cookies for Mommy and two new Tinkerbell movies for me. I wasn't quite in the mood to play with her. She stayed about an hour before heading off to work. I talked to Daddy on the phone before he went to work and then Grandma called to say she was on her way. Meanwhile, lots of doctors and nurses were coming by to check on me. Although I am doing a lot better, it's pretty clear I am not going to be discharged this morning. The goal today is to get me up to full feeds and get me back to room air.

My first feeding started shortly after I woke up and I got moved to room air about that time. My saturations weren't quite where they needed to be, though, so they moved me back to 25% oxygen (room air is 21%). The morning passed with watching videos, coloring and reading books with Grandma and Mommy. At 12:30 I went down for a nap so Grandma and Mommy went and grabbed lunch at the cafeteria. At 1:30 the nutritionist came by to check on me. Since my formula is meant for kids up to 24 months it caught the hospital's attention and they wanted Mommy to consult with the nutritionist. Mommy explained we were waiting to get into GI and my former GI didn't want to make a bunch of changes during the time I was supposed to have had surgery. At the end of the consult a couple of things were decided - Mommy would get some samples of the next stage soy formula (Bright Beginnings) to take home (Mommy didn't feel good about switching me in the hospital) so I could try it ahead of the GI appointment in July. In addition, the nutritionist would get with the doctor on my case to see about getting a blood draw to check to see if I have a true milk allergy or if I am just lactose intolerant. Mommy is pretty suspicious it is an allergy so they'd like to know that for sure.

After she left, Mommy took a much needed break to run back to the house for a shower for the first time in two days. Within a few hours she was back. While she was gone I woke up from my nap not too happy that Mommy was gone but Grandma got me calmed down. Uncle Jason showed up to visit just about the time Mommy did but I wasn't in any mood to play with him and he had to get back to work anyway.

A volunteer brought a doggy by to say hi - his name was Tyco and he was a beautiful golden retriever - but because I am still under transmission precautions he wasn't allowed to come in my room so I waved and blew kisses to him instead.

As the hours had been passing I kept getting closer and closer to my full feed. By 4 pm I had my full 200 ml feed over an hour with no problems. Well, okay, we had one big problem. I hadn't pooped in 2 days. This is never good for me and we were on the lookout for a poopy diaper that never arrived despite a dose of Miralax in the morning. Although it was going to push me over my normal daily intake, Mommy wanted to get one more 200 ml feeding in before bedtime and to try to run it a little faster than an hour since I was tolerating everything so well - big mistake! Papa had just shown up and out of nowhere I started crying and Mommy knew the vomiting was on it's way. Sure enough I threw up a few times on myself and in my bed. Mommy had brought another pair of jammies with her, so I got changed and my bed got changed and the nurse stopped the feeding. My tummy was pretty hard and Mommy knew the constipation was going to have to be dealt with. The nurse let the doctor know we needed an order for a suppository. It was getting late, so Grandma and Papa headed home. Daddy called while we were waiting after working a late night he was starting to feel like he was getting sick so Mommy told him to get some rest and we were doing fine.

About 9 pm, I finally got my suppository. As usual I was not happy about the process but settled down to wach videos pretty quickly. As I was drifting off to sleep around 11 pm, Mommy smelled something and got a diaper. Unfortunately, it wasn't as much as I needed to pass but it was a start. The good news though, is I got back to room air mid-way through the day and got up to full feeds so we met our goals! Looking pretty good for a discharge tomorrow - cross your fingers!

Peyton Nicole Smith