Although the NICU is sill hopping, many of the hospital staff members that work with Isaiah are off. Which is totally good; they deserve a break! But that break (which included an extra day due to Labor Day) gave us more time to think and think and think.
Grab a pacifier, relax, and chill out, Mom and Dad.
I, along with a few of Isaiah's nurses, had noticed Isaiah stopped moving his left leg. I mentioned it yesterday at rounds and since so many have noticed it, the neonatologist decided to do x-rays to check. I also asked for a scan of his chest as I've been paranoid that I broke ribs almost a week ago when I held him.
Turns out he has a tiny fracture in his left femur. It almost looks like a little chip of the bone is missing. Hopefully that will heal quickly.
He doesn't have any fresh fractures (that can be seen) in his ribs, but he's showing evidence in 6 ribs of healing ones (2 more than before). Most of them are on his left side. Six is rough, but at least there's nothing new.
When Dr. Bober came in this morning at 8:30am, we hit him with a number of questions...questions that I had began typing up on my lap top after waking up at 2:30am. I may have also woken Dave...and then neither of us could sleep! As a result, Isaiah got to see us at 5am this morning.
It paid off though. Dr. Bober really took the time to listen to our concerns, ask questions until he himself truly understood them, and worked to alleviate them.
I'm not going to go too far into detail here, but we're happy and confident in the new plan. We're hoping it will help to lower Isaiah's respiratory rate. The staff describes him as "tachypneic" (which sounds nothing like it's spelled, fyi). That means he breathes rather quickly. I'd say he averages about 80 breathes per minute.
Dr. Bober talked to the pulmonary team at Dupont and had them come in to do a study on him today.
We're looking to see if maybe the way his ribs are formed are the reason/a contributing reason for his quick breathing.
He was not too happy about the mask.
We're awaiting the results on that.
Yesterday we started placing him in his car bed that will carry him home. Today they did the test and although his breathing rate was high at times, he still passed.
Note: I was sitting right next to him on the couch making sure the
car bed was safe and sound on the couch next to me.
On top of everything else we've had going on today, we also had an oxygen company and a feeding tube company come meet us and bring us supplies for HOME (!!!!!!!!!). They spent some time training us on how to use everything as well.
We're hoping to head home tomorrow or Thursday. We shall see. I'm trying not to get excited about that anymore because I was hoping we'd be at home as I type this update.
Don't get me wrong, we've enjoyed our time here in Dupont's NICU, but it's time to show Isaiah his room and introduce him to his furry brother! Plus, we'll be back in 2 weeks for his next PAM treatment (he'll be in-patient for it as a precaution since his calcium levels went down with the last one) so it's not like they are rid of him.
Ok, was this update long enough? I'm sure I forgot some information but you get the idea, we're getting ready to go HOME. Hopefully the next update we give you will be from the comfort of our living room. <3
Awesome you are going home!! �� He grows more adorable by the day. And I so look forward to your posts. He is so CUTE!!
ReplyDeletesooo excited that you guys get to be home soon!! :)
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