One Crazy Day in the NICU

Wow. It's a good thing I had my friends Pam and Sally as my support group in the Intensive Care Unit today. When I got to the hospital this morning, Kean was in the middle of an X-Ray. You know how I told you he's been struggling with the breathing while eating thing... well, last night he gained 100 grams. That's just not right. It's way too much. So this morning they ran the X-Ray of his chest. It shows he has wet lungs or fluid in his lungs. So he's now on a diuretic (spelling?) to help him pee that out. They also did an EKG on his heart again. It showed the one flap that was open at birth has closed on its own (Yippee) and that everything else looks pretty good. However, while examing his heart, they saw a shadow or spot on his liver. So as I write this, they are doing some tests on his liver. Oh brother, does this ever end? The doctor did order a small, but constant flow of Oxygen placed thru his nose and since that's been on, he did much better breast feeding and bottle feeding after I left-- no desaturations. I whined to the Nurse Practitioner today that I'm never going to get him home at this rate-- and she told me they let babies go home with portable Oxygen tanks-- and this might actually speed things up. The Oxygen hopefully will solve the big desaturation problem and give him more energy to stay awake and eat-- rather than use his energy to fight everything else going on. So we will see....
My mom (Saint Dee) is leaving us. I'm trying not to freak out. The poor woman has been here for a couple of months watching my kids and trying to stave off exhaustion. She's headed back to Vegas tomorrow for some much deserved normalcy-- and to take care of my dad. He's been baching it forever. She's kept my kids feeling loved, kept my house running, and has found the energy to pick mountains of berries from my garden and make bottles and bottles of homemade jam. Jars of jam-- made for me to give away to the amazing nurses and staff members who took care of me for the 11 weeks in the hospital. If I could only be like her when I grow up...