Home Sweet Home!
Just a quick post to let you know that we are HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Soooo happy to be here and can’t wait to start our new journey with A! He is breathing SO much better, sleeping awesome and NOT desatting at night. I will update in the next few days with LOTS of pictures.
A big thanks to all of you for the thoughts and prayers over the last 40 days. It means alot!
Home After 88 Days!
Well our journey at the hospital has ended. We brought A home yesterday after 88 long days. I can hardly believe it. I told the docs on Thursday that I wanted to take him home and that I had enough. I just couldn’t do it anymore. Every time I tried to talk to someone I would cry. It didn’t even matter if it was about him.
He had a pretty big episode Saturday around 4pm and then again yesterday afternoon around 1pm. However I knew staying isn’t going to help and I need to try it here at home. If he needs to go back I will know. I have to say too that the discharge papers have many things in there that are not correct and things that I didn’t even know yet. Interesting. Lucky I didn’t have to sign it because there is no way that I would have.
Anyways, long story short we are home with no answers. Home hopefully for a while. A was very happy to be home last night and ended up falling asleep in his chair around 6pm. When he woke up at 7:30pm he had a pretty long episode that was pretty scary to me. I am sure hoping this isn’t going to continue. We had our nurse last night so I was able to get a good sleep.
Thanks everyone for all your thoughts throughout this ordeal. It means a lot to know so many people care.
Easter bunny…
In the car for the first time in a while on our day pass…
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Hanging out with grandma…
My awesome family!
One of his core nurses Sarah…
Sleeping in his chair…
His favorite nurse Jordana…we will really miss her!
Loving kisses from grandma…
Smile!
Another favorite nurse Jen…
Excited to be home!
Sleeping in his chair last night…
Doctors Might Be On The Ball?
Well I think that maybe, just maybe the doctors are getting their acts together. On Wednesday they came back and started to talk again about going home. I told them that if they made sure the discharge papers said that he was having cyanotic episodes then I would take him home. Well needless to say I didn’t see the doctor again until Thursday. They know that they cannot send a child home that isn’t stable.
I was also told by the doctor on Wednesday that one day soon I need to start advocating for A. I think I almost fell out of my chair. I asked if she was kidding and she said no. I said that from day one that is ALL that I have been doing. I haven’t stopped advocating! And as far as I am concerned I advocate WAY too much in my mind. I shouldn’t have to fight and fight to try and get answers for A. She then told me that doctors are always going to come in and want to do tests and that isn’t fair for me to continue to let this happen. She said at some point I need to start advocating that enough is enough. WHAT?! But no one wants to do tests. And then she told me that it isn’t fair that I am requesting all of these tests for him. In particular the probe that he is having done on Monday. She said it is unnecessary testing that I am willing to put him through. Now give me a break. The last thing I like to see is A having anything done. It is hard for me not to get emotional when they take blood! But I feel the probe IS necessary to see if he is refluxing … end of story.
After some more fighting about the echo cardiology finally (but reluctantly) agreed to do an echo. So that was done yesterday and from what I heard last there was nothing seen. This is wonderful news! Just another thing that I can rule out.
Genetics came up in conversation again and she didn’t feel that was necessary either. I was confused because I had another doctor mention that A could have some sort of genetic mutation. She told me that the next time that I was pregnant I could just have an amnio done to tell me if anything was wrong. I told her that I couldn’t do that. I already had one preemie and there wasn’t anything that I would EVER do to risk that again. She said if I had it done early enough then it would be okay. Ummmm NO!
Well guess what? Genetics is going to be doing a consult. They came up yesterday but will be coming back on Monday to speak to me.
I also told the doctor that I felt that if A was “typical” then they would be doing everything possible to try and figure out what was wrong with him. That if he wasn’t a preemie and didn’t have cerebral palsy they would figure it out. I really am getting the feeling that they look at him as TOO disabled. But A is my child and that doesn’t matter to me. He is my life and I will continue to fight for him as long as I have to. I think they are starting to realize this.
He continues to have episodes. It seems odd too that most times they are at 2pm and 10pm. I can’t seem to figure out what is going on at that point that would cause this to happen. Two nights ago he had one that really scared his nurse and she is a nurse that usually works in the ER. This says a lot to me. Today he had one for about thirty minutes where he didn’t come above 60. I just don’t know what to think about them. All I know is that they are very hard for me to deal with and I myself feel really scared at times.
Now for some long overdue pictures…
So Frustrated I Could Scream!
Well I am pretty upset right now to say the least. The doctor just came in to speak to me and there is talk of A going home!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They say he is stable. Stable?!?! Dropping oxygen saturations to the 30s, 40s, 50s etc 223 times in 6 hours is stable?! The answer…he does this at home!!! I just don’t know what to do anymore. This is absolutely crazy. I told the doctor this the other day when he said he wanted to admit him. I said that nothing would be done. And it seems that I am yet again right. I just don’t understand. I am angry, hurt and frustrated.
To top it all off A has a fever so they did blood cultures and a swab for RSV. Yes, RSV. The floor he is on contains tons of sick kids with RSV and rotovirus. I’m so flippin mad!
Is there ANYONE out there that will EVER help my little man?
MRI, CT Scan Are Finished…Now We Wait To Hear About Cochlear Implant!!!
Well it was a crazy couple of days down in Toronto at Sick Kids. A, daddy and I went down on Wednesday night to save us the drive Thursday morning as A had to be at the hospital for 7am. We got down there about 8:30pm and went and checked in our room and then headed out to get a bite to eat. WOW, I cannot believe how many sketchy people are around down there!
After having dinner at the Golden Griddle we went back to our room to try and get some sleep before having to be up at 5:30am. A didn’t go to sleep until about midnight and I didn’t sleep very well anyways. Strange to be right beside him sleeping!
Thursday morning we headed out at 6am to walk over to Sick Kids. We weren’t sure how far it was exactly, but it only ended up being about ten minutes which was nice. I was very frustrated from the beginning of our stay with Sick Kids. We had taken him down to MRI and then they decided that they needed to do an x-ray to make sure that there was no suture inside his stomach from his tube. I told them that there wasn’t one and they had to be 100% sure just in case as metal cannot go into MRI. This was something that should have been checked before the day of the MRI. Anyhow it all worked out well and he was then hooked up and put to sleep. We were then asked to leave the room so that they could get the IV in and just in case they had to put a tube in.
J and I headed back to the hotel to check out and then grabbed some breakfast before heading back to the hospital. At 11am we were called in and went back to see him in recovery. He looked pretty good considering he had just woken up from an anesthetic. (I was pretty emotional waiting for him to come out of the MRI thinking that the next time we will be there will be for the surgery. I can’t even describe how I feel about it but I know that the day we are there for that there are going to be a lot of tears!)
They had him on six litres of oxygen but it came down to about a litre within an hour. He was then moved up to the constant care room on the fifth floor. The nurses and ENT resident were very concerned about how A drops his oxygen sats and how low he goes. It is starting to really bother me as I know that it isn’t normal and something should be done to figure it out. On the “okay” side of this, the ENT resident did say that because A has always been like this with his sats that they look at him as “chronic” and therefore that is probably why no one is very concerned about looking into it.
Grandma and grandpa came down for a bit to see how things went and to visit with A. J and I went back to the car parked at the hotel to grab A’s bag and stroller.
I decided that because A was in the constant care room that I would go home for the night to get a good sleep. Just before we left A decided to pull out his IV and there was blood EVERYWHERE! I got him cleaned up and then we headed out. My gut was telling me not to go home but I did. When I got home I was pretty upset and felt like such a bad mom.
Yesterday morning, grandpa came to pick me up to head back to Sick Kids to pick A up. We got there at 9:30am and I thought that he would be discharged soon after getting there. However that was a whole other story once we got there. The nurse came over and told us that his feeds were stopped during the night because “it was pouring out of his stoma site”. I said I didn’t believe that as he has had the tube for so long and never once have I seen that happen. She said that the night nurse told her that the bed was soaked from it so they had ordered a GI study to see what was happening. They were just about to start an IV and I said no, that I was starting his feeds up. The doctor came over and said that we could do that and see what happened once it was running. This was 10:30am.
At about 12pm there was no leaking and told my dad that we could leave. On the other hand I was worried now that IF there was a leak we would get home and then have to go to Mac to get it looked after. So I figured since the study was already ordered we might as well wait for it.
At 2:30pm they called us down to radiology. We sat there until 4pm!! Anyhow we went in and the doctor put some dye into his tube and said that it was fine. Then he looked a bit closer and said that there was a tiny leak in the middle of the tube that was in his stomach. He showed me but I told him that I wasn’t worried about it because this was the first tube that A has had that has NOT caused a lot of vomiting issues. Before I could say anything he took the scissors and cut the tube right off! He said he was going to just put a new one in. I was NOT happy! A was very upset as the doctor was not being gentle at all. He was satting in the 40s and they weren’t even worried about giving him a break to settle down. He was screaming at the top of his lungs and I was trying hard not to cry myself. It is VERY hard to watch things like this happen.
When we got out of there and back to the nurse that had come downstairs with us I started crying when she asked how it went. I told her I should have just gone home and not bothered waiting for the study. The other nurse told me that she would get the doctor for me to talk to but I said no, that I just wanted to leave.
We got back upstairs and I calmed down. A was tired and went back to sleep. He was satting between 88-90 which was bothering me. I placed the oxygen in front of his fact and he would go up to 98. Take it away and he would go back down. I think that he needs to go back on oxygen because it is obvious that it is helping him. When he was sleeping earlier in the day ON oxygen he didn’t go below 97. So I will calling a few doctors next week to see what they think we should do.
Anyhow, we didn’t end up getting out of Sick Kids until 6:30pm. We are VERY happy to be home for sure!
So now we just wait to hear from the cochlear implant team about whether or not A is a candidate and hopefully get the date for the surgery!!!! I am sooooo excited that my little man will be hearing my voice!
My little man this morning when I went to get him was at the bottom of his bed…
This Day Means So Much To Me….
This day brings back a lot of emotions and memories for me. It was 14 years ago today that my grandma passed away. She was a big part of my life and I will always remember and think of her. I was with her when she passed and that day still seems so recent to me. We were bringing her back on air ambulance and I remember just watching her breathing. I think I knew before the nurse did that she had passed. It was one of the hardest things I have had to deal with in my life but I know that she is in a better place. I really wish that she could be here with us today but for some reason she was taken from all of us way too soon. I know that she would be very proud of me and how I am dealing with things in my life. I also know that she would be a very proud and amazing great grandma to A. But at least I can say that I KNOW she is one of the angels that watches over him….
It was one year ago today that my little man came home to stay from the hospital! I cannot believe that a year has gone by already. He came home weighing 9lbs5oz and is now 20lbs! Here is him one year ago leaving the hospital…
And here is him tonight with his daddy…
So as you can gather from the pictures he is home. Long story short, they never know what is going on with him and I find it pointless for him to sit in a hospital that is full of germs and many other things that I don’t want him catching. If they aren’t going to do anything then he might as well be home.
I have to say that our experience again this time at Guelph was good. Taking him into a packed emergency room was nerve racking for me but once we did the whole triage ordeal they just took us right back. I still cannot believe how good they are about realizing how susceptible he is and then Mac who deals with preemies makes us sit outside on the curb with him!
So anyhow, the nurses in the ER and the doctor were also all great. Very friendly, kind and caring. The nurses up on the ped floor were also wonderful. And of course A’s doctor, Promnitz is also wonderful.
I got a great nights sleep thanks to Joyce coming up to the hospital and staying with A. I returned this morning at 7:30am and was happy to see that A was more like himself. Little did I know that he didn’t have a good night at all. Joyce said his movements were crazy and he was very unsettled. She held him to try and get him to sleep and within six minutes (she was timing) he jumped sixteen times. He had also vomited some more formula that she said was partially digested. Ugh I was so frustrated!
After Joyce left at 8am A threw up formula two more times. However I was just told once again that it is viral. What I can’t seem to get through their heads is that Ashton has NEVER thrown up formula in the year that he has had his gj tube. It is impossible to be “normal” when the tube goes past his stomach and into his jejunum! As well, A has had a few viral infections before now and it is just bile that he usually vomits. But what do I know? I’m just the mom who spends 24/7 with this kid….
I decided that since A no longer had a fever, seemed pretty much normal to me and no one listening that I would just bring him home. He threw up formula one more time since coming home and has had three loose poops. I called his GI team and left a message that they need to call me ASAP to get him in. They need to figure out what is going on.
So thank you everyone for all your thoughts and well wishes. And Lisa, thank you! That is the second time in one month that you made me cry!
I really wish that I wasn’t the one making all of the decisions when it comes to A! It would be so nice to find a doctor that could just figure things out. If anyone that reads this has any ideas let me know! At this point I am almost willing to take him anywhere to any doctor!
So that is it for February 23rd. I love you grandma! And A, don’t make this your way of celebrating your homecoming!
He Makes Us Believe.... 
