Sorry for the lack of updates. We are still alive here. Matthew actually came home from the hospital on Wednesday morning. He was still very sick, but the doctors thought he was on the up-swing. The rest of the day he was very uncomfortable and coughing a lot, so I decided to wait until Thursday morning to head to my parents for my grandpa's funeral. Wednesday night things got worse. Matthew seemed so agitated to me. He continued to work harder and harder to breathe. I finally put some oxygen (we have this at home for emergencies) on him to see if that would help. It did for a bit, but by morning, I didn't feel right leaving him with Steve so I could go to the funeral until I had a doctor check him out. I called the office and they told me to bring him right over. When we got to the doctors office, Matthew's oxygen saturation was 72%. (Normal is above 90, but ideally you want it as close to 100% as you can). They quickly put him on more oxygen, gave him a breathing treatment and wanted to send him by ambulance to the hospital. I talked them into letting me take him if Steve came over to the office and drove us, so that I could keep an eye on him from the back seat.
Let me interject here and say that the day was made even worse by the fact that I missed my grandpa's funeral. That was rough. I was torn in two directions and I couldn't be in both places.
Within a couple of hours of being at the hospital, it was clear to see that the poor boy just needed more oxygen and we probably could've avoided another hospital stay if we would've known how much extra oxygen he really needed. Thursday night he had some issues with vomiting, and they tried to start an IV again, and it took 4 pokes by anesthesia to get it in. And then it only lasted for an hour before it blew. I asked to restart his feeds at 1/2 the rate instead of re-poking him. The anesthesiologist said he didn't really feel like he had anywhere left to poke anyway.
Friday ended up being a quiet day, and they let us go home Saturday. But, in many ways, are house now feels like a (temporary) hospital. Matthew is still on oxygen. We have this huge oxygen machine (sorry can't remember the name of it) that sits in our living room, and 100 feet of tubing so we can take him throughout the house. He is also hooked to a pulse oximeter so I know what his oxygen level is. Matthew gets breathing treatments 4 times a day, CPT (chest percussion therapy) 4 times a day, and meds three times a day. I am running the role of nurse and respiratory therapist full time in my house. All while having our house on the market (and private showings multiple times a week), and taking care of the rest of my family. Hence the reason the blog has set silent.
I just want to say how thankful I am for my nursing back round. I'm sure a person could learn to do all of this, but boy oh boy, am I glad to have a jump start on things. And I'm not sad that I'm doing it, nor do I see it as a burden. I am so thrilled to be doing this from my home, instead of sitting in a hospital room!!
We have weaned Matthew down to 1/2 liter of oxygen at night and 1/4 liter during the day. His cough is getting more loose and he is able to clear his self better; I think we are on the downhill slope of this respiratory junk. Once we get rid of the oxygen and sat monitor, life will get more back to normal. In the meantime; my days are filled with medical treatments and lots of snuggling.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Grandpa Halverson
My Grandpa, seen here with my Grandma and their 6 great-grandchildren, passed peacefully into rest yesterday . We'll miss you grandpa!
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
The grand tour
Matthew has decided to do a tour of hospitals. October and November was Childrens in Omaha; November and December was Childrens' in St Paul. February is St. Elizabeth's which is a bit closer to home for us and since I work here, it makes things a little easier.
Last week, Matthew started sleeping; ALOT. He was only a wake 1-2 hours a day. By Friday, I figured I better at least let someone know what was going on. His doctors in MN suggested I give 2 ounces of juice to see if his blood sugar was low. Since he is on the ketogenic diet; and gets very little sugar, this can be a concern. I gave Matthew 2 ounces of juice and he woke up almost immediately and then preceded to be awake all night. Dr. D had also requested that I give him a phone call on Saturday with an update. When I told him that things were looking better, he said; "well he's probably getting sick, keep a close eye on him". When your body is fighting something, it uses more glucose than normal and since he is getting very limited glucose, he most likely had a low blood sugar.
Sunday morning he woke up coughing and vomiting. He continued to cough and vomit most of the morning; so I called our on-call pediatrician for some cough syrup. She wanted to see him the office that day instead (our office has "sick" Saturday and Sunday hours). By the time she had seen him Sunday; he had vomited 40 times, and was vomiting continuously in the office. She wanted him admitted immediately. And I didn't get my cough syrup I wanted, either.
It took 8 pokes to get his IV in, and the last 5 were from the anesthesiologist. He is one of my favorite anesthesiologists too. He worked so hard and so patiently but Matthew was sooo dehydrated. When we put Matthew on the scale, he had lost a pound since he had been in the doctors office on Wednesday, all from dehydration. Sunday, they gave over 800 cc's of fluid before he had a wet diaper. They were wanting to put a catheter in him; but I requested that they just be a bit more patient. As soon as he caught up fluid wise, he has been fine.
I can do a lot of things for Matthew at home, but when he won't keep fluids down, I am sunk. And Matthew just doesn't have the reserve to be able to tolerate being dehydrated.
This hospital stay does NOT have me worried. If he were one of my other kids, he would be at home, sucking on popsicles and ice chips, getting room temp baths and lots of love. But like I said; Matthew's body cannot tolerate being off balance, so here we are.
Today he's still coughing a lot, but not so hard that he is vomiting. They have his feedings back at 2/3 the amount of normal. And there is talk of letting him go home late tonight or tomorrow if they can get him to tolerate full feedings and his medications.
Last week, Matthew started sleeping; ALOT. He was only a wake 1-2 hours a day. By Friday, I figured I better at least let someone know what was going on. His doctors in MN suggested I give 2 ounces of juice to see if his blood sugar was low. Since he is on the ketogenic diet; and gets very little sugar, this can be a concern. I gave Matthew 2 ounces of juice and he woke up almost immediately and then preceded to be awake all night. Dr. D had also requested that I give him a phone call on Saturday with an update. When I told him that things were looking better, he said; "well he's probably getting sick, keep a close eye on him". When your body is fighting something, it uses more glucose than normal and since he is getting very limited glucose, he most likely had a low blood sugar.
Sunday morning he woke up coughing and vomiting. He continued to cough and vomit most of the morning; so I called our on-call pediatrician for some cough syrup. She wanted to see him the office that day instead (our office has "sick" Saturday and Sunday hours). By the time she had seen him Sunday; he had vomited 40 times, and was vomiting continuously in the office. She wanted him admitted immediately. And I didn't get my cough syrup I wanted, either.
It took 8 pokes to get his IV in, and the last 5 were from the anesthesiologist. He is one of my favorite anesthesiologists too. He worked so hard and so patiently but Matthew was sooo dehydrated. When we put Matthew on the scale, he had lost a pound since he had been in the doctors office on Wednesday, all from dehydration. Sunday, they gave over 800 cc's of fluid before he had a wet diaper. They were wanting to put a catheter in him; but I requested that they just be a bit more patient. As soon as he caught up fluid wise, he has been fine.
I can do a lot of things for Matthew at home, but when he won't keep fluids down, I am sunk. And Matthew just doesn't have the reserve to be able to tolerate being dehydrated.
This hospital stay does NOT have me worried. If he were one of my other kids, he would be at home, sucking on popsicles and ice chips, getting room temp baths and lots of love. But like I said; Matthew's body cannot tolerate being off balance, so here we are.
Today he's still coughing a lot, but not so hard that he is vomiting. They have his feedings back at 2/3 the amount of normal. And there is talk of letting him go home late tonight or tomorrow if they can get him to tolerate full feedings and his medications.
Monday, February 8, 2010
New pictures
Last week we took new pictures of the kids. It was definitely needed, it'd been awhile!! So check my sidebar for some cute new pics of all four kiddos!
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Go, Matthew, Go!
When I posted about Matthew's new chair, I got a comment on that post from Barbara over at therextras. She encouraged me to try to get Matthew more upright, even if it was for minutes a day. Well, I took her comment to heart. I've been getting Matthew as upright as he can be and then waiting until he would tire from it, and then tilting the chair back just a bit until he would tire from that incline, and I'd keep doing that until he got to a place where it wasn't so much work for him to sit up. I looked at those pictures on my blog the other day; and I can't believe the difference he's made in just a short time. Here's some pictures from last month and pictures I took the other day.
And here is a side view: this perhaps speaks more.
And here is a side view: this perhaps speaks more.
Matthew is tolerating being this upright for about 15 minutes, before his head gets a little heavy for him. I'm surprised how quickly we've seen results!!
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Rights of passage
Mason has finally entered the "I get money from the tooth fairy" era. He has been waiting soooo long. It didn't take him long to go from "I have a loose tooth" to "Mom, look I lost my tooth!" He kept saying, "Mom, it's so tiny; I can't wait for my man tooth" Funny boy!
Friday, January 29, 2010
Crafty girl: part 2
Nursing covers
I have a cousin who makes nursing covers for her friends who are having babies. I have two friends who I work with who are due to have babies soon. We had a baby shower for them this last weekend and I decided I too, would try my hand at these covers. I LOVE the way they turned out. I will be making more of these.
I have a cousin who makes nursing covers for her friends who are having babies. I have two friends who I work with who are due to have babies soon. We had a baby shower for them this last weekend and I decided I too, would try my hand at these covers. I LOVE the way they turned out. I will be making more of these.
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