Lots to be thankful for

We are so thankful this year, for doctors and hospitals, for technology both new and old.  People who have offered so much to help us, and David's new job which has been ever so supportive.  And mainly that Oliver is headed in the right direction.  We had a pretty good Thanksgiving week.  Oliver, however, had a pretty rough week.  On Monday when he had his first injection of Avastin, he was put back on an IV and given Fentanyl.  He hadn't necessarily needed the IV, but he hadn't eaten since 6:30 am and the doctor kept running later and later.  By 1 pm, the kid was hungry, and voicing his anger about it.  So Veronica, his main nurse, hooked up the IV to give him fluids.  Since he already had an IV in, they decided to go with IV meds for the procedure. 

It knocked him out!  He got the meds around 2 pm, and when I showed up the next morning at 9:30 am, he opened his eyes for the first time.  Between being so tired from the meds and his eyes hurting from the exam and injection, he slept through the day.  He didn't have any other problems from the Fentanyl, though.

On Wednesday, when they did the second eye, his main nurse wasn't working, and the doctor decided that they didn't need to put him through getting another IV, so they'd just give him oral morphine.  I was able to stay for the procedure this time, since Dr Oliver was able to do it earlier in the day.  While I was holding him afterwards, his heart rate kept falling.  Each time it fell even lower, and it took him even longer to bring it back up.  In the 2 hours I spent with him following the injection, he had 5 Bradys.  The nurse watching him that day decided that my holding him was too much for him, and put him back to bed. 

He continued to have problems with breathing and his heart rate the rest of the day.  Overnight, he actually had to go back on CPAP because he was breathing so shallow.  Thursday, he was still drowsy, but was at least breathing better.  Even Friday, he still seemed to be out of it.  When Veronica got back to work on Saturday, she was very, very irritated that they went with morphine over fentanyl.  I love that she's such an advocate for him.

Oliver is gaining weight like you wouldn't believe.  Less than a week after he hit 5 lbs, he's already up to 5 lbs 14 oz.  I, of course, thought this was great.  His doctors, however, are concerned.  Not that he's gaining weight, but that he's gaining without growing longer.  They believe that indicates a protein deficiency.  Granted, I'm not the best about eating protein, but talking to lactation leaves me believing even if I ate nothing but protein it wouldn't change the consistency of my milk.  So his doctors are now also giving him a high protein formula mixed in with his milk.  He's having a hard time digesting it, so today Veronica had said that she wants to talk to them on Monday about trying a different brand.

We took dinner out to the nurses and doctors working in the NICU on Thanksgiving.  When I walked in, O's nurse told me that he was wearing his Thanksgiving shirt we had brought for him.  Except we hadn't bought him a thanksgiving outfit, and there was no way he was wearing Nathaniel's.  I probably should have taken a picture anyway, but I wasn't a fan.  It said "first Thanksgiving dinner" and then had pictures of jars of baby food.  We don't do purees, so it wasn't a shirt I would have gone with.

We take no part of black Friday shopping.  Instead, we took Nathaniel to the Denver Children's Museum and Hooters for lunch, and then I spent the afternoon with Oliver while David and Nathaniel napped.  Nathaniel had a blast at the museum, even though it was busier than I would have liked.  And the waitresses at Hooters always give him a balloon, so it's his favorite place.

 

    Last week we bought a video monitor since we're soon moving Nathaniel into a twin bed.  I wish we had gotten one much earlier.  The show Nathaniel puts on is sometimes the highlight of my day.