Just to mention that the new night nurse I mentioned a little while ago has yet to start working, and the nursing agency has no idea when or if this is ever going to happen.
Right now our only remaining nurse is doing some nights and some days for us. We had her for 2 nights this week which was a huge relief, and I feel much more refreshed for having had that break.
Today is the last of Dorrie’s due dates, so there is no question over whether or not she’s one now.
She’s feeling a bit under the weather today, I think, but it’s hard to know exactly why. On Friday, we went up to the hospital so she could get new ear tubes placed for the winter. She also got an MRI, mostly to look at her ears, but Dr. Optimist figured if she was going in for that we may as well look at everything. And on top of that she also got her flu shot and her first round of Synagis.
The appointments were all rather late in the day, so we were worried that we were going to have to spend the night. I admit, I was freaking out about it; because of her respiratory status, she automatically goes to PICU where there’s a respiratory therapist always on the floor. Even though we’d been home from there for six months, I still feel myself tense up when I think about going back.
Fortunately, our visit to PICU was short. She was brought back still out from the sedative, but it was short acting and she had no anesthesia hangover like she’s had in the past. After a couple hours, Bob and I felt comfortable packing her up and heading home. We didn’t get home until about 10pm but I was so relieved to not have to spend the night at the hospital that I didn’t care. Our usual paranoid precautions ensued: Dorrie got a bath, we changed her ventilator circuit, and then both of us took showers too. No hospital germs can dare linger here!
It was midnight before we got to bed, but it wasn’t a bad night all the same.
As a followup to Bob’s post, we have now had two trach changes done by us since the bad one. Both have gone considerably more smoothly and we’re hoping that we won’t have any further problems.
I think the main problem was that neither of us was sure why we were encountering so much resistance when we tried to put the trach in, and now that we know what it is, we’re no longer so afraid to apply any pressure.
Today marks the beginning of the week where all of Dorrie’s estimated due dates will fall. (Yes, that’s correct — due dates plural. It’s a long story, but suffice it to say we had three of them. The one the hospital officially used was the earliest, though I personally think it was probably more likely the latest. But as that was the difference between 24 weeks and 23 weeks, we didn’t argue their choice.) By next week, she will be one by all counts.
I’d like to say that she’s doing great, but she is still very significantly delayed, and it’s hard to figure out exactly why. She didn’t have any bleeds, and anyhow, plenty of babies who did have met their milestones way better than she. All we can kind of do is continue to work with her and hope that she begins to catch up at some point.
Dorrie models her Halloween costume
Dorrie tries to wave away the camera.
Dorrie displays some tendencies inherited from Uncle Jeff.
