Rest? Who Needs Rest?

Ironically, a hospital is the last place one can find rest. It is astounding how many individuals walk into a patient room in one day. Of course, they all give the courtesy knock, but the tap on the door is not intended to ask permission to enter; it is merely to tell you that you have one second before the person strolls in. Guaranteed, I will have just gotten Ayden to sleep before someone comes to poke or prod at him or to ask me a question.

Unfortunately, if one has too many days and/or nights of constant interruption (plus the noises from the monitors, the hallways, and the other patient rooms), one becomes exhausted to the point of tears. I was at such a point when my mama came to the rescue. She always tells me that she has "been reading (her) grandmother book" so that she will be the best possible resource for us without driving us crazy. I honestly don't think she needs to read the book because she already knows me well enough to know how best to help me! She offered to come to the hospital to watch Ayden while I rested, and then she continued to watch him while Bryan and I went to dinner. I was immensely grateful for the opportunity to pause and to spend time with my husband. Mama was happy too because she got to spend some time with Ayden.

Absence makes the heart...

Allow me to explain why it has been a few days since anything has been posted.  Overnight on Monday at around 2:30 a.m., my stomach was hurting bad enough that it woke me up.  Within 30 minutes, I was in the bathroom with a trash can sitting in front of me.  Both receptacles were eventually needed.  It was not pretty.  From 2:30 yesterday morning until I went to bed last night, I got about 3 hours of sleep, total.  Not fun.  I was too worn out to think about a post and, since I can't go to the hospital (where Allison is) to see Ayden while I am sick, there was no way for me to get her our laptop so she could put something up.

So, I had a stomach virus early yesterday morning and a fever yesterday evening.  Remember the MAD (Mom and Dad) rule?  "If you have recently been sick, think you might be sick, have been around someone who is sick, have contemplated taking a sick day even though you really weren't sick, you are not allowed to visit Ayden."  I have had to apply that rule to myself.  Thus, at the very least, I did not go to the hospital yesterday and will not go today, either.  Whether or not I can go tomorrow will depend on how I feel today.

And boy does that suck.  Not only do I not get to see my son, I don't get to see my wife, either.  This is certainly not how I drew it up.  To potentially make matters worse, Allison's stomach felt a little "uneasy" overnight, so she is having to stay away from him today, just in case.  This means nobody is holding him.  That sucks, too.

I want to give a special word of thanks to Josh and Beka.  They have been housing me during the week so I'm not so far away.  I know they weren't expecting to have a sick person in their house, but they have gone above and beyond and have been incredibly gracious in taking care of me.

***

As for Ayden, he seems to be content with keeping the doctors and nurses on their toes.  As you recall, over the weekend he didn't get any food for 48 hours because he had blood in his stool.  After running several tests and not seeing anything else of note, they started him back on food on Sunday.  He had several diapers that were negative for blood, then Monday night there was one that barely tested positive.  They stopped his feeds, x-rayed, again didn't see anything else, so started him back.  All the subsequent dirty diapers came back negative until last night, when again one tested positive, they stopped his feeds, x-rayed, didn't see anything else, and started the feeds again.  Wash, rinse, repeat.  What's the significance of all of this?  I have no idea.

What else?  He has thrown up once each of the last two nights.  I suppose that's normal for a little kid.  The doctors apparently aren't concerned about it.  We are working with the speech pathologist on getting him to practice for his next swallow study.  I had some success with getting him to drink 5ml of formula on Monday.  Yesterday, though, he was apparently content to just hold the bottle in his mouth, steadfastly refusing to even attempt to swallow anything.  Then, late yesterday afternoon, he drank 10ml of formula.  Go figure.  His anti-SVT medication has been dropped down to once a day, rather than twice.  The "pacing study" - in which they try to induce an SVT to see where the impulses are and to confirm or deny that the medication dose he is getting is enough - should be happening soon.

I think that gets us caught up.  Really, as to Ayden, the last couple days have been relatively uneventful.  I am the one that has had all of the problems.  I guess that's a trade-off I would gladly make at any time.

The poop is blood free!

Yes, I can add this to The List of Things Bryan Never Thought He'd Talk About.  It might even be Top 5 material.  Also, I so wanted to use a line from Billy Madison as the title for this post, but I suspect that would not have pleased the wife.

After another round of good looking x-ray and test results this morning, the doctors decided to start giving Ayden food again.  They are starting conservatively - he's getting a continuous feed of a rather basic food source at a relatively small hourly rate.  How his body responds to this will determine where we go next.

In that regard - how his body responds to having food again - they wanted to see three consecutive blood-free poops.  And Ayden came through!  He's churned out three dirty diapers so far and all three have been devoid of blood.  Thank you, God.  And thank you to everyone who prayed about this.

Ayden has certainly been a much happier baby today now that he has food in his stomach.  This greatly pleases his parents.  Hopefully now we can get back on track.

Could You Go 48 Hours Without Food?

After seeing the bloody stool, the doctors held Ayden’s feeds. By 7:00AM tomorrow, he will have been without food in his tummy for 48 hours. They have him on a fluid IV for the purpose of keeping him hydrated, but the fluid has no nutrition in it. Ayden sleeps fitfully (if he sleeps), and he has worn out his pacifier! One thing is for sure: He will have that sucking skill perfected!

Grr! I understand that what they are doing to our son is necessary, but it is incredibly difficult to stand by his bedside or hold him in my arms and see that he is miserable! I have cried over his obvious discomfort multiple times.

For the past two days, Ayden’s tests and x-rays have remained normal, which is awesome, and we are hoping for continued good news. They want to do another round of tests and x-rays tomorrow morning before they will consider starting him back on feeds… slowly.

Bryan is with him tonight. (He gets the weekend shift.) He got to give Ayden a bath. I am hoping that doing so will relax Ayden's body for the evening ahead. Both of my boys are exhausted!

Atten-hut!

We humbly request that Ayden's Army mobilize on an issue.  Overnight, Ayden started having blood in his stool.  Today, although it has not been visible, his dirty diapers have continued to test positive for blood.  There are several potential explanations.  Some are not a big deal.  One - necrotizing enterocolitis - is.  It can be as bad as its name sounds.

They are still running tests, taking x-rays, etc., so we do not currently have a diagnosis (or a timetable for when we might receive one).  If you get a chance, though, please keep Ayden in your prayers today and ask that this turn out to be nothing more than a minor issue.