Saturday, January 10, 2009

In Other Crew News

I've been so preoccupied with the big brain stuff, that I haven't updated on other Crew info. Last night he hit 1486 grams (I think that's the exact number, but I called at 4 in the morning, so don't hold me to the exact gram), which is 3 pounds and 4 and a half ounces! He is growing growing growing!

He saw the pediatric cardiologist and received a mostly clean bill of health. He has pulmonary stenosis, but it is presenting as a very mild case, and he has no evidence of aortic stenosis.

He has been uncharacteristically cranky this week. During one of his fussy spells I discovered when he was squawking that he has thrush (he just started breastfeeding, but that's for another post), so I'm sure it's made him uncomfortable. He should hopefully be feeling better from that by now because we started him on Nystatin on Wednesday.

I already mentioned that his stoma is having some problems. It is retracting, which is affecting how well the seal is on his ostomy bag. It has caused some skin breakdown that looks quite painful to my eye. Add to that the burning of additional leakage and owie owie!! Between the thrush and this, I'm not surprised that he is being fussy. He's on Tylenol and that seems to help some. I'll be glad for him to have his stoma taken down and taken care of.

He is back on oxygen, as you may have noticed from the pictures. His respiratory rate has been abnormally high this week, as has his heart rate. Since returning to the cannula, his breathing has slowed down some, but not all the way. His heart rate seems about the same. You can't ever be sure of what causes these things, but pain is a common factor. Just think about what you do when you are in pain.

So there you have it. The good, bad, and the unknown.

1 comment:

AdronsCatherine said...

I've been following your story for a while now, and all 3 of my girls and I are praying for you :o)

Hang in there, mama - we don't know what God has in store for any of us, whether we appear perfectly normal, or if there is a strong possibility of problems. Regardless of what the future holds, the experiences you have had with Crew have profoundly impacted not only your own life, but the lives of so many people around you! Thank you for sharing this journey with us!