Quick up date on our little ones,
After 3 long days at the hospital I am back at the hotel and in touch
with the world again. Jett was discharged from NICU on Friday morning
to a regular room in the hospital. We are getting to be old hats at
this juggling kids from hotel to hospital and back. Tonight Daddy is on
Jett duty and Mommy is on hotel duty with the two eldest.
Jett
is doing well. He remains on IV antibiotics and the good news is that
all the culture reports came back inconclusive so although he definitely
had neonatal sepsis, the source was undetermined and so the length of
his IV antibiotics is now 10 days instead of 14. Which is exciting news
for us. He is starting to eat again and still remains a 'lazy' eater,
but he is taking in a good 30mls every 3 hours and sucking. Now we are
just trying to get him to put some weight on. His big sister has passed
him in weight when in the beginning she was the light weight of the
two.
So...basically our time in India this trip, has
been one bad turn after another. Both babies were released to our care
from NICU on Tuesday, July 19th (remarkably less then 24 hour in NICU
for 34 weekers) We had a mandatory 3 day hospital stay on the floor and
then discharged to our hotel. Gerry and I did our best juggling all 3
kids and the twins were (and still are for the most part) very typical
newborns.. Eat, sleep and poop. We had a 3 hour schedule and both
babies wouldn't budge till the 3 hours hit. Dylan (whom we have already
nicknamed, 'Our Little Diva.') would be the first to wake and if not
attended to in 30 seconds she was/is going to let you know. Jett is our
laid back 'chilled out' little guy and waits to be attended to. Both
are just tiny and we worked (and still are working) on increasing their
weights. Although small both were healthy and thriving.
After
a week or so we noticed Jett was not taking the bottle as he should.
We reached out to friends and family as this was all new to us. Blaze
was such a textbook, perfect little baby, we were spoiled beyond belief
with him. We sufficed that Jett was just going to be a lazy eater and
it was going to take us some work to get him to feed. Other then that,
he was a typical newborn. Finally after trying every trick in the book
Jett still wasn't eating and got to the point in less then a day to not
sucking at all. That's when I became concerned. It was like the bottle
was an instant sedative, and when it hit his lips he would fall fast
asleep. He was still alert, but starting to have more sleepy periods
then awake.
We quickly called Dr. Yash and she
suggested we take him into the ER for an evaluation as it sounded
possibly like low blood sugar. Gerry took Jett over to Hiranandani and
the resident doctor recognized Gerry from when Blaze was born did some
lab work and said, ;go ahead back to your hotel and we will call you
with the results in a few hours.' Jett was stable and although
lethargic his blood sugar was good. Thank God for our amazing hotel
accommodations that are a quick 15 min. rick shaw ride to and from the
hospital. This has certainly been a blessing in disguise as we always
stay at the VITS, we decided to take a leap of faith and try something
new. Little did we know what a great decision this would be since we
have had to make our fair share of visits to the hospital this trip.
Gerry
no more made it back to the hotel with Jett when the Doctor called and
said he needed to return with Jett right away his lab work was abnormal
and he rattled off a bunch of numbers. After hanging up Gerry realized
he should have gave the phone to me to decipher the medical jargon. (I
am good for some things. :) We called Dr. Yash and she got on the phone
to Dr. Bijal (the Pediatrician) and returned our call immediately.
Jetts white count and platelets were abnormal and they were going to
admit him to the NICU with neonatal sepsis. 'It was a good thing we got
him in when we did as it could have been much worse.' Our hearts sunk
and the tears flowed. Gerry headed back to Hiranandani while I stayed
with the other kids. Dr. Soni and Dr. Bijal literally met them at the
door of the hospital. Jetts bed was waiting for him in NICU.
They
started him on IV fluids and 3 different types of heavy duty IV
antibiotics. They placed an O2 hood over his head as the nurses noted
he was have a few very short periods of not breathing. They placed an
NG (feeding) tube and started all the testing. Labs, cultures, CT scans
and lumbar punctures....
In the mean time Blaze was
having diarrhea for quite a few days and we expected it was his large
intake of fresh fruit. So we cut back only to have the diarrhea
continue. We started him on some polyantibiotic liquid and he was still
drinking and eating well, so we let it run its course. Expect for the
fact that the same day that Jett was going to the ER, Blaze now started
vomiting. Again we called Dr. Yash (we had her on speed dial this day)
and she got some meds. ordered for the vomiting. Dylan (fingers
crossed) was the healthy one. Or so we thought. Docs warned us to keep
her and Blaze apart.
Jett was in good hands in the
NICU. It was difficult to see him all alone with tubes and lines all
over the place. I see this on a daily basis at work with my patients,
but its a completely different thing when its your helpless child. We
were allowed 2 visits daily and Gerry and I rotated so that we didn't
have to bring the other kids to the hospital and risk getting them
sick. His labs were improving slowly and all the culture results were
coming up negative. The lumbar puncture was negative for meningitis
(dodged that bullet!).
In the meantime we needed to
bring Dylan in for a check up. We met Dr. Bijal and she had news on
Jett. She did a CT of the head and to her surprise it came back
positive for a grade 1 mild ventral bleed. Again our hearts sank. She
stated that Jett was improving in his alertness and motor skills so she
was not concerned. This is not uncommon in preterm babies. You can't
imagine the terror of being told your 13 day old son has a brain bleed.
Can you see why we have been somewhat tied up now???
Each
day passed and Jett improved slowly. Labs were improving the IV fluids
were slowly being decreased and they started him back on oral feeds.
The feeding tube came out, the oxygen came off, the Jett we knew was
coming around!
Unfortunately, our luck with Dylan ran
out... during her 'routine' check up we found out that her weight
decreased again, she now had an umbilical granuloma and oral candida
not too mention the green goop we noted from her right eye that morning.
Thankfully none of this serious, just more stress and worries on our
part with more antibiotics and treatments.
So fast
forward to today... Blaze is still with diarrhea and what a trooper, he
hasn't skipped a beat with the exception of three times the normal
diaper changes a day, every time he says, 'uh ohh, poopie' we groan and
giggle. Poor little man. We are quickly running out of diapers and
wipes. He is on an oral antibiotic and a second course of
polyantibiotics.
Dylan's eye is great! Her belly
button is drying up and her mouth is free of cooties. She is eating
like a champ (twice the amount of her brother) and taking some vitamins
and minerals to help increase her weight.
Jett remains
in the hospital still receiving his IV antibiotics, and if all his
blood work and repeat CT of the brain come back normal on Wednesday, we
can bring him back to our home-away-from-home here at the hotel to be
reunited with his big sister and brother.
Mommy and
Daddy are worn out from around the clock feeds at two separate
locations, sick children and the news that we now have to do DNA
testing since 'it had been over 3 years since Gerry had frozen his sperm
and that sample was used for the twins.' Not what we anticipated since
it was the same sample as Blaze and no DNA testing was required then.
When it rains it pours!!!!
Thank you all again for
your love and support. They mean the world to us and we are truly
touched by those who kept us apart of their prayers.
We haven't lost our sense of humor...
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