02/15/2007

I give up. I've tried to upload pictures for hours now and it's not working. I'll have to figure something out over the weekend. Pictures, you ask? Well, yes we have pictures because, after 58 days, Erik and I were finally able to hold our son! It was a great Valentine's Day. Plus, the cleaning fairies came to our last night. It was wierd. We walked in and noticed that Chloe had shredded something all over the living room floor, per her usual, when we realized it was a box of chocolate. So, cleaning fairies, I'm sorry but Chloe ate the chocolate... and she doesn't seem to be suffering any ill effects. Thank you very much whoever cleaned the house. Erik and I have some sneaking suspicions of who did it. I mean, the house is cleaner than we have ever cleaned it. Seriously, somebody scrubbed the top of the fridge. Who does that? Thank you sincerely from the bottom of our hearts. It was icing on the cake for a great Valentine's Day. Now, to Emmers. Talked with Dr. A last night and he said that it was time to challenge Emery and not pay very close attention to his blood gases, that his oxygen requirements and chest x-rays will let them know what he needs. Good ole Emery. His chest x-ray is getting worse and his O2 requirements are going up. I'm afraid he's getting pneumonia again. I've been bugging the nurses. Last night after we held him when he was put back into the bed he threw up a little. The poor kid has never moved a day in his life and spent 6 weeks clamped to a bed so the movement in and out of the warmer bed would make anyone sick. Anyway, I was afraid he aspirated on it, but Erik and I are both off tomorrow and will be there early in the morning and hopefully catch rounds with Dr. D and see what he has to say. I just wish there was one day, just one day, it seems so little to ask, where I would call and they would say "Emery is so great! His chest x-ray looks good or his CO2 is down" or something.. anything. I almost wish they would lie to me on occasion. I called up today after rounds and the nurse said "we've got great news! We all rallied and managed to Emery out of the study so he's off the oximeter." I don't know why that's great news. I mean, it's good for the nurses because Erik and I had him in a research study and the nurses really hated the pulse oximeter so now they can use what they are used to, but I think the nurses don't understand what's good news to us lol! Anyway, after talking to Dr. A I thought the plan was to challenge Emery off the vent. He said they weren't going to pay close attention to the blood gases because Emery was compensating for the higher CO2, but instead they doctor today went back up to twice-a-day blood gases and no vent changes and Emery's O2 needs have gone up so maybe he knew something the rest of us didn't. When Emery was first born, his first doctor (for whom I will be forever grateful) told us that for the next few months we should expect a prolonged ventilator course, an infection and pneumonia. Expect a lot of setbacks, she said... and well, everything she told us happened and I wasn't surprised for any of it but now we are in unchartered territory. I think we should still get to hold him tomorrow unless he gets sick again overnight, which I fully expect. It's always at night, and it's always on a weekend. I promise pictures will be up soon! Love, Sarah, Erik and Emery