Nathan's surgery is...a success!
Thank you all for your prayers through this very long day. Nathan did just fine with his surgery. He's recovering now on the 10th floor of Children's. They tell us he might even be able to go home tomorrow.
From what the doctor tells us, his femur was a little more damaged than she had anticipated, but she put all the bones in the right place and now we just have to wait and pray that body lets them grow properly. She tells us that it's likely the he'll need another surgery later on in life and she'll be watching him until the hip is done growing.
The good news is, he'll likely only be in the cast for 6 weeks, and then he'll have a removable brace for a little while. Also, the surgery fixed most of his leg length difference. There's still a small discrepancy, but it might not be an issue at all.
So, now we just have to wait. After today, our prayer is that God will guide the growth of his hip and that it would heal into a perfectly normal joint. We'll keep you all updated as we learn more info.
Giving Shots and Back to Bottles
Hello dear readers. It's been a long while since I've blogged about our many unusual adventures in parenting. I've been pretty swamped with work for the last month and a half. The spring is a busy time for me anyway, so when Nathan decided to show up early, it toppled my very carefully balanced schedule.
I'm happy to say that I'm finally caught up and not so stressed out about work any more. Thus I thought I should write a blog post with this spare few minutes.
As I write this, mom and Nathan are napping in the chair next to me in the NICU at Beth Israel. Earlier today, Nathan had his second swallow study at Children's Hospital. Unfortunately, the study showed that he's still aspirating (taking food down the wrong pipe) when he tries to swallow milk of a standard thickness. The good news is that the the doctors have determined that the thickener that was allowing him to eat by mouth was not the cause of his elevated bilirubin levels, so tonight we gave him his first bottle after a week long break.
Somehow he knew it was coming, because he was totally psyched. (Video of Nathan trying to eat everything in sight to follow.) He finished the whole bottle in about 15 minutes, and was looking for more. After a couple of good burps he was off to sleep.
Earlier this week I got to experience something completely new. Its a pretty regular occurrence for Nathan to get a shot, but I've never in my life had to give one. Katie and I new this was coming. We were informed that Nathan would need to go home on blood thinners - and that we would have to give him a shot twice a day - about a month ago. At that point my biggest question was: how do I practice giving a shot? Surely they don't teach people to give shots by just showing them what to do and let them start stabbing at people. In my head I pictured something that looked like one of those CPR dolls that was used for this sort of thing. The doctors said they thought that giving shots was practiced on a piece of fruit or something like that. Later on, Katie was taken through a lesson using a rubber glove stuffed with cotton balls. Katie says it was really good for practicing keeping the needle steady post poke.
On Tuesday we got a visit from very nice nurse practitioner from Children's, for shot training. To my relief she produced a small rubber pin cushion looking item for us to learn on. After a little bit of time with that, it was time for one of us to do the deed for real. I volunteered to go first.
The trick of all this is that it is possible to do it wrong. Its not just poke and plunge. If the needle goes too shallow, then he won't get drug in his system. Too deep, and we might hit muscle and really hurt him. We had to be shown how to pinch just the skin and put the needle in at a good angle.
The worst part of it was right before I put the needle in. I stood
there pinching his skin the way they showed us with the needle poised and ready. I could have stood there for a long time if I hadn't been prompted by the nurse. His leg gave a sudden jerk (which I was naively unprepared for) at the first prick, and the plunger was harder to push than on the practice runs, but in the end, I was told I did a good job by nurse Brenda. Mommy had been standing by with some sugar water to help distract him and it was over before I knew it.
I have to say that, in spite of the horror of it all, Nathan's reactions to things of this nature are hopelessly cute. He usually doesn't respond to the prick right away and he rarely cries. His expression just changes to a look of utter bewilderment. Like someone just cut him off on the highway from four lanes away. Sort of a "wait ,WHAT'RE YOU DOIN'!?" All the while vigorously sucking on his pacifier. He's a good boy. He doesn't cry so his parents won't feel bad about giving him a shot.
Happy Due Date! Part II
It seems that Nathan was just as excited about today as mommy and daddy were. He was more awake than we've ever seen him. He decided to celebrate by taking a full bottle at two consecutive feedings (and no spells!), we gave him some tummy time (he wasn't so sure about that), and we read two books. He barely even cried when we had to bug him for things like diaper changes and temperature taking. His blood work came back and his bilirubin levels are going down, and his liver seems to be relaxing a bit. The only bad part about the whole day was that mommy and daddy had to leave to go to work. It was especially hard today because he was wide awake and curiously looking around as we left. I think he made us both late.
Giving Shots and Back to Bottles
Hello dear readers. It's been a long while since I've blogged about
our many unusual adventures in parenting. I've been pretty swamped
with work for the last month and a half. The spring is a busy time for
me anyway, so when Nathan decided to show up early, it toppled my very
carefully balanced schedule.
I'm happy to say that I'm finally caught up and not so stressed out
about work any more. Thus I thought I should write a blog post with
this spare few minutes.
As I write this, mom and Nathan are napping in the chair next to me in
the NICU at Beth Israel. Earlier today, Nathan had his second swallow
study at Children's Hospital. Unfortunately, the study showed that
he's still aspirating (taking food down the wrong pipe) when he tries
to swallow milk of a standard thickness. The good news is that the
the doctors have determined that the thickener that was allowing him
to eat by mouth was not the cause of his elevated bilirubin levels, so
tonight we gave him his first bottle after a week long break. Somehow
he knew, because he was totally psyched. (Video of Nathan trying to eat everything in sight to follow.) He finished the whole bottle in about 15 minutes, and was looking for more. After a couple of good burps he was off to sleep.
Earlier this week I got to experience something completely new. Its a
pretty regular occurrence for Nathan to get a shot, but I've never in
my life had to give one. Katie and I new this was coming. We were
informed that Nathan would need to go home on blood thinners - and
that we would have to give him a shot twice a day - about a month ago.
At that point my biggest question was: how do I practice giving a
shot? Surely they don't teach people to give shots by just showing
them what to do and let them start stabbing at people. In my head I
pictured something that looked like one of those CPR dolls that was
used for this sort of thing. The doctors said they thought that
giving shots was practiced on a piece of fruit or something like that.
Later on, Katie was taken through a lesson using a rubber glove
stuffed with cotton balls. Katie says it was really good for
practicing keeping the needle steady post poke.
On Tuesday we got a visit from very nice nurse practitioner from
Children's, for shot training. To my relief she produced a small
rubber pin cushion looking item for us to learn on. After a little bit
of time with that, it was time for one of us to do the deed for real.
I volunteered to go first.
The trick of all this is that it's possible to do it wrong. Its not
just poke and plunge. If the needle goes too shallow, then he won't
get drug in his system. Too deep, and we might hit muscle and really
hurt him. We had to be shown how to pinch just the skin and put the
needle in at a good angle.
The worst part of it was right before I put the needle in. I stood
there pinching his skin the way they showed us.
I have to say that, despite the fact that he's in a little bit of
pain, Nathan's reactions to things of this nature are hopelessly cute.
He usually doesn't respond to the prick right away and he rarely
cries. His expression changes to a look of utter bewilderment. Like
someone just cut him off on the highway from four lanes away. Sort of
a "wait ,WHAT'RE YOU DOIN'!?" All the while vigorously sucking on his
pacifier. He's a good boy. He doesn't even make his parents feel too
badly for having to give him a shot.