Day 110

Before we get started, Asher’s due date was yesterday!! What a road we’ve been on…

7:22am – Morning Update

Today has been a difficult day to say the least…

We had a great report this morning, then literally 5 minutes later a load of bad news we didn’t see coming…

First of all, Asher’s back on an IV. He’s currently NPO, back on antibiotics and clear fluids with TPN ordered for tonight…

This morning they noticed that his stomach was distended a bit. They ordered an ultrasound and found “a pocket” of something inside of his stomach…

They ran labs and saw that his white cell counts were a little elevated. They also found protein and ketones in his urine. All tell tale signs of infection. They sent off his blood and we waited for the culture results…

Meanwhile, Asher is supposed to be leaving the hospital tomorrow pending the results of his eye exam tonight…

4:34pm – Hospital Update

All results show negative for any infection…

His diagnosis: dehydration…

Over the last few days, with the shortage of nursing staff, Asher’s had a few days where he wasn’t able to get a full feed in during his feeding times. He has 45mL ordered every 3 hours but usually take 60-70 mL without breaking a sweat. He had a couple of days, while being extremely irritable (now thinking he was in pain from something), where he wasn’t taking his usual feed volume nor the ordered feed volume…

With nurses not having time to sit with him to ensure he gets the full feed beyond the allotted time its easy to see how he could lose 120mL/day of milk…

Thus, dehydrating him…

Talk about wanting to bang our heads against a wall…

7:37pm – Eye Exam Results

Dr Wickens has concluded that Asher does not need surgery at this time. His eyes are in the same stage of ROP they’ve been the last month (stage 3 zone 2). According to his findings, he still does not meet the classical criteria for needing surgery. Dr Wickens will not operate on a baby, even if borderline, unless they perfectly meet the criteria…

So basically, after all the stress and anxiety from the last 7 days plus the last 12 hours…

And after Asher has his IV removed and gets back up to full feed volume…

He can come home…