Thursday, September 23, 2010

Hallelujah!

Lochlan's follow-up for his eyes on Monday went well. Both Dr. Gayle and Dr. Arthur were VERY pleased with his eyes. The surgery was a success! We have to go back this coming Monday to make sure the rest of it has healed. [insert sigh of relief here] We did end up waiting a very long time before he was seen however. Which was a bit frustrating, but surprisingly enough, I had a lot of patience that day! It took over an hour before we were even seen to have his eye drops put in, then still had to wait an additional hour for them to dilate his eyes and for the doctors to be ready for us. Needless to say it was a long wait, but so worth the wait for such good news! Medigas came yesterday. (Wednesday) Lochlan remains at 1/16th of oxygen per litre. He was sat'ing on average 93%. If he gets to 97%+ then he will be tried with either a lower setting (only 2 more to go!) or off to see how he does. Melissa is coming again in a month! I know! One more month! But...if Dr. Flavin says to come back in 2 weeks she will to see how's he's progressing. I REALLY hope she comes back in 2 weeks and he's ready for a trial off of the oxgyen. That would be so fantastic! Don't want to get my hopes up....but you never know with this little miracle! Speaking of off of oxgyen...whoopsie...mommy was over tired on Monday night and I went to take him upstairs and realized the regulator was still on the one tank and wanted it to be on a bigger one that's in his room...well I transferred his tubing to the smaller tank, realized I wanted to do something different, and then transferred him back to the main tank in the living room. (all of which took about 30 seconds) Well....I forgot to put the oxygen back on! Seriously, Jenn? I had no idea until about oh...a half an hour...45 minutes later. Lochlan was alert and looking at me and smiling (which he's starting doing the past week or so) and was showing no signs that anything was different. Then I thought, oh I'll transfer him now...(after I'd did what I needed to do-- I had been side tracked too with a phone call) and then I realized my error. Are you kidding me? I was shocked and annoyed with myself! How could I have done that? Thankfully Loch was okay. Didn't change colour, didn't breathe or act any different. Today was his paedatrician's appointment. He now weighs...ready for it? 7lbs and 4 oz!!!!And is 50.5 cm long (almost 20 inches...i think it's like 19 3/4 inches) His head circumference is 36.5cm. He's growing! He's growing! But....he's still on the low end of the growth chart for very low birth weight children. (5th percentile for weight ..a little higher for height) AND...another happy note...his head ultrasound from last Friday is NORMAL!!!! No brain bleeds...everything looks great! I AM SOOOO HAPPY!!!! I immediately said.."praise the Lord!" So they've increased his iron but other than that we go back in a month! I can't thank you enough for your thoughts and prayers. He truly is a miracle. Sorry the video is so dark.

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Sigh of relief: post eye surgery

I'm so relieved to tell you that Lochlan's surgery went well. Dr. Gale said he sailed through it. So proud.

We got the call just after 11am that the OR was booked for after 4pm that day but that he was on standby basically. The Pedatrics team told me to bring Lochlan in around 3:30pm and to not feed him after 12noon. I had my concerns because I know how these things can go...especially if he wasn't booked in for surgery just on call.
I didn't want my monkey to not be able to eat for that long. He usually eats between 2 and 3 hours in the afternoon. But he had to have an empty stomach for 4 hours prior to surgery.

We waited. And we waited. He finally got some sugar water between 5 and 6pm after he got his IV in. His nurse was going to put it in his head but I asked if that really was a good idea if he was getting eye surgery -- maneuvering his head etc...so they agreed and decided to try his foot. Didn't go so well. Tried his other foot...that didn't work either. So they went for his his again. He has an incredible vein his head that just screams to have an IV in it! I can understand why she wanted to use it in the first place.

IV was in place. All that was left to do was wait. Lochlan was amazing as usual. He handled not having any food incredibly well. I was expecting him to just lose it at some point, but other than a few small bouts of crying, he was really good.

He went in for surgery around 7pm...7 hours after having breastmilk. Poor lil monkey.
The anesthesiologist was amazing and so very nice. Rob and I waited in the OR waiting room and just before 9pm Dr. Gale came out and said how well the procedure went. He ended up not doing laser. I can't remember what the procedure was called but it's what they used to do all the time. I guess the laser wasn't working or something. Anyway, the good thing is it's done and over with and we can breathe a big sigh of relief. They didn't have to tube him as they say. (intubate --- where they put a tube down his throat to help him breathe while he's under) Another big sigh there.

He will go back on Monday to have his eye rechecked to make sure everything is good and regressing as it should now. Please pray for that! If not, they can do another surgery where they inject a medicine in the eye. How fun does that sound!?

Loch was moved back up to peds in the PCCU for close monitoring. Lucky for us, Christine from the NICU was his nurse! I really liked her from before when she had been his nurse.

Shortly after we got up there, I nursed him. He was slightly awake and so he fed around 10pm. He was a starvin marvin. But he was also beat muskeet so he didn't go very long. Then he nursed again at midnight and then slept until 4am!! Only because Christine had to wake us both up since he was going past 4 hours. So needless to say, he had a great night.

I forgot to mention that Lochlan's eye looked like he'd been in a bar fight. And it wasn't helping that he was mainly turned towards that eye because the IV was on the opposite side of his head. So that was puffing it up even more.

Still cute as ever though.

Just after 8am, we were moved to a regular room on the pedatrics floor. It was basically a sit and wait to be discharged based on his O2 requirements. They wanted to release him on the same settings he came in on. (1/16th of a litre) During sugery and for a few hours after because of the deeper sedation, he was on 1 litre of oxygen. I was a bit nervous it would take a while to get there.

Finally between 4pm and 5pm, he was back to his baseline of 1/16th. He remained sat'ing well and we were able to be discharged!

We made a pitstop at the NICU for a quick visit since we hadn't said our goodbyes and thankyous when Lochlan was officially discharged from the hospital to come home on August 16th. We were able to visit with 3 of his nurses: Mary Anne, Cathy, and Lois. I plan on bringing him back in a week or so to see a couple of the other nurses I really liked.

So that's where things are at. He needs to have eye ointment put on his eye twice a day and as mentioned before, he'll go back on Monday for a follow up appointment.

Tomorrow, he had his head ultrasound to check for development and any bleeds. I'm praying everything will be normal. The last time he'd had his head ultrasound was after his last eye surgery. It was normal then. So I hope nothing has changed. I say normal but they said they didn't comment on anything so I hope that means it was normal. That the blood had reabsorbed.

Oh, I forgot to mention. Lochlan was weighed on Tuesday afternoon. He's 6 pounds and 12 ounces!! He gained almost 2 pounds since coming home almost a month ago! He's 19 inches long too. Grow baby grow!

Here are a bunch of pics from the last few weeks. Enjoy! And thank you for your continued support and prayers.

*hugs*

Jenn

















Post op.


Monday, September 13, 2010

Prayers

I am going to keep this short as I need to get to bed but I wanted to write to ask you to say a prayer or two for Lochlan.

He will be having eye surgery tomorrow. I have to wait for the phone call and then take him in. He will be have to be admitted and will be there for probably at least 24 hours. Good news is, they might not have to intubate him.

I am nervous. It is a necessary evil. And I pray my warrior baby handles it like he's handled everything else - like a champion!

Friday, September 10, 2010

See no evil, hear no evil...

Wow! My last post was September 1st! It's now September 10th. Sorry about that. I've just been a little occupied to be able to sit down and blog.

Lochlan had his hearing test on Friday (the 3rd) and he did amazing to sleep pretty much throughout the entire thing. I wish I'd brought my camera. He looked liked a little alien baby - hooked up to all this monitors on his head and in his ears. Crazy.

He has to go back in a few weeks to get retested as his left ear is showing some mild elevation or something like that or maybe I'm making up something here. Anyway, he's showing some hearing loss in that ear in certain frequencies and the right ear was even milder. But there was also a test to see if there was any fluid built up and there was...so that's why the technician or doctor or whatever she was said she wasn't concerned and that she thinks the hearing loss is only temporary.

We'll go back in about 3 weeks time and go through the process all over again. Hopefully by this time, he'll have no issues. But he will continue to be followed over the next year or so like everything else.

His appointment with Dr. Arthur (eyes) was still the same as last week. Still watching the one area in his left eye very closely. He said that it hadn't really changed...there was still some bleeding which makes him believe that it's not regressing as much as we'd hope. And that it is showing signs of detaching from the retina...but it may or may not be taking it with it. Sorry...I can't really remember...all I know is that we have to go back again on Monday. I keep praying his eye will heal and he won't need to have more surgery.




(One of the onesies that Carol made up for Lochlan - I need to post the other 2 cause they are hilarious)

Lochlan had another appointment with Melissa from Medigas and he was able to be weaned a tiny bit!!! So exciting! He's now on 1/16th of a litre. (down from 1/8th) It's the next setting on the regulator. Basically there's only 2 more settings to go (1/32 and 1/64)...but he could always come off the oxygen from 1/16th. We shall see (and pray) Melissa will be coming back for the home visit in 2 weeks and then monthly she said. She also said she thinks Dr. Flavin will keep Lochlan on 1/16th for a while. So not be weaned again in 2 weeks. But hopefully at the monthly visit after that, he'll be ready to come off it entirely. Time will only tell.

It's still pretty freakin' incredible that his lungs are growing and getting better. Considering where they started from. They have been his biggest issue and it's unbelievable that you can grow new lungs! Thank God for that!

That's where the appointments and results have been over the last few weeks. I think I'm remembering everything. Lochlan has been doing extremely well. He's had his share of fussiness but I'll take crying and fussiness to remind me he's here with us anyday!

Lochlan is sleeping in his room for the first time overnight tonight. We decided to try it out to see if he'd sleep better and we'd sleep better. And also because if Abby ends up in our room at some point in the night, she's most times up when Lochlan's up which is a problem as the other night he was having a fussy night and she was up for almost 2 hours in the night as a result. She's not cranky just wants to help. So far so good in his room. Sometimes throughout the day, I'll put him in his crib to sleep and he's done amazing. I remember with Abby around the time she was 3 weeks old, we moved her to her crib because she was making all the grunting noises and we couldn't sleep/she couldn't sleep. It seems to be the same with Lochlan.

I need to share another Abby quote. The other day was Rob's birthday and we were all sitting around the table having dinner and there was a lull in the converstation (very brief as we're all talkers) and she goes "ha ha soooo....look at that tree over there!" She wanted to be part of the conversation! How cute. I think that has to be one of my favourite quotes from her so far.

A couple of pics of Abigail from the other day when she was playing mommy with her baby. Which by the way this picture was taken just after she has lifted her shirt up and said "I'm feeding the baby!" (oh dear...) then changed his bum, and put him in Lochlan's chair. Cute.

The other is from when we made necklaces and bracelets. She was showing them off. (and she had to wear her headband that she put on herself) "Boo-yah!"



I'll try to blog sooner rather than later.

P.S. Thanks Auntie Noni for taking Abby to see the horses so I could take a nap while Lochlan had his today!

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Packing it on!




Lochlan is doing amazing. Last week Medigas came for a home visit with the hopeful intention of weaning his oxygen requirements as per Dr. Flavin. Unfortunately, he wasn't ready. He's still sat'ing well but he dropped to the mid 80s at one point when he was on 1/16 so she put him back to 1/8th. I was a little disappointed but understand that he wasn't quite ready. I think what made it difficult was that I really thought he'd be weaned. Oh well. He'll get there!

Overall the week went by great. Hard to believe he's been home now for over 2 weeks!
He had his 2nd pediatrician appointment with Dr. Moore who is wonderful by the way, and he now weighs 5lbs, 13 3/4 ounces!!!! He gained pretty much an ounce a day since his last weigh in which was 2 weeks ago. Because he's been gaining so well, we no longer have to give him 2 bottles of fortified breastmilk. He goes again in 3 weeks for his next checkup so hopefully he'll have gained some more weight without having to go back on the fortified milk.

He's 18 inches long. (Grown 5 inches since birth!!!) And I'm finding the preemie clothes are not quite fitting as well anymore. He can't wear the sleepers because they are too short for him! The onesies still work though. I knew he was gaining weight over the last few weeks as his clothes were fitting better and he looks a little chunkier...like I ever thought I'd be saying that!! ha ha! Chunkier!!

Anyway, I need to cut this short as Lochlan is waking up to be fed. When he's hungry, he's hungry!!

Til next time,
Jenn