Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Recovering

Lochlan is on the mend! We are just waiting on some paper work and then we are bustin' outta here!!!! He is feeling much, much better. I saw his chest x-ray and it was crazy!! I can't believe how much of his lung the pneumonia took up. Poor guy was working out of a lung and a half! It was a massive pneumonia.
The right x-ray is from his jan/feb stint with pneumonia. The one on the left is this round.



Yesterday, he still required a whiff of oxygen - his lungs just hadn't recovered. But he was feeling so much better. He was up playing and having a good time and back to his regular chatty self. (still don't know where he gets that from!)

The nurses or maybe child life services found a really cool pirate ship that Loch absolutely loved. I think we have an idea for his birthday present! We had a blast playing with it last night.


Finally he was able to have a bath last night. He was getting pretty rough looking and a bit stinky too! Although who wouldn't really?!  While the nurse was flushing his IV Lochlan complained of it hurting. He ended up having it  taken out after his bath because it was becoming red and puffy. (not good) The team agreed to switch him to oral antibiotics thankfully so he didn't need to have another IV put in. *sigh of BIG relief*



That sort of got the ball rolling. With the IV out he was feeling much better and also after having the bath and being all clean and renewed he was super happy. It took a long time for him to settle for bed. I think he finally got to sleep just after 10pm. We had read stories, brushed teeth and said a prayer just after 9 so it still took him that long to fall asleep. He was pretty wound up. He'd also had a pretty long nap and had only been awake since 4:45pm!

The nurse ended up coming in every 2 hours last night to check on him and finally tried him off of the oxygen around 10 or so. I can't remember. I just remember waking up suddenly and jumping out of bed thinking he wasn't breathing. Once I settled myself and my nerves I realized that nope he was just fine. The nurse came in shortly after and checked his sats and he was doing well. (95% I think)

So he slept all night without the oxygen turned on!!! This morning he woke up nice and early (considering he went to bed so late) at 7am. (normally that's his wake up time but this morning it felt extra early) His nose prongs were half off his nose so I just took it right off. (I double checked to make sure there wasn't any oxygen coming out of it.)

It's been a great morning! We played some more with the pirate ship, he had a great breakfast and looked out the window quite a bit. It was super cute when he first looked out the window - he said "Whoah - it's the world!"

It was so nice to see him so excited and happy and hear him belly laugh and just be silly.

Doctor Moore and the team came in and she made a comment about how I was already packed and ready to go! (yep, I'd started at 8am!!!) She noted that we'd done this so often that I just knew when we would be able to go home.

And I was right! He was discharged!!! His O2 was sat'ing at 97%  Then we had to wait for the doctors to finish rounds and get the paperwork filled out. Lochlan was not too keen on having to wait. He was very ready and anxious to go! (as was mommy!)

Finally we "hit the road,  Jack!" Made a pit stop to drop off his prescription (he'll have to finish his antibiotics for the next 6 days and take his Ventolin as needed) and headed home. He is super happy to be home and is now napping in his bed.

Dr. Moore said that because she saw him in the hospital she won't need to follow up until June. She wants him to remain on the Alvesco puffer (one puff daily) to help with the inflammation of his lungs to help him recover.  Then he'll be off the puffers over the summer and most likely be back on it late fall as the cold/flu season approaches.

It's tough sometimes. He has BPD (Bronchial Pulmonary Dysplasia) His lungs are inflamed and scarred due to his prematurity and having underdeveloped lungs and being on the ventilator for so long.  He has no reserve when he does get sick. A "normal" kid would likely sneeze and cough for a few days. Because he has no reserve he gets pummeled and needs help getting his oxygen saturation up. As he gets older, his lungs will get stronger but it's just something we are going to have be prepared to deal with. We will try everything we can to reduce exposure to germs - wash hands and disinfect toys and our house and vacuum carpets, keep him away from anyone that is super sick, etc. And just pray he gets stronger and doesn't have to be hospitalized again.

And remember how far he has come and what a miracle he is.




Nurse Abby

First meal able to sit up in the chair

Just hanging out.


Snacktime!

Tower building!

Cool ship eh!

 



Abby's card for her brother. This picture is Abby at home with a sad face because she misses Lochlan.


She wrote the message all by herself! "Lochlan, I hope you get better soon. I love you, Abby. xoxo

I put her card at the end of his bed. And some pictures around the message board.



Loch, showing off his stickers and batman Band-Aid where his IV used to be!

Chillin', reading a story!

No more nose prongs!!!!

Stretching out on a different "bed" doing some colouring.

Ready to go! (still had to wait about 45 mins!)