Day of Life #288 - Back and forth

Hi followers! We're so busy and I'm forgetful, so once again, another delay in between posts. You could say a lot has happened since the last post. Madeline's progression up through the feed volumes went good, all of her electrolites were balanced, her puking was down to one small one a day in the morning, and her loose stooling was averaging 5/day. So with everything looking good, the doctors concentrated her formula to 24 calories per ounze and sent Maddie home on a 24 hour continuous feed Thursday afternoon. Yay right?

Friday things started sliding back. Mad-Belle had 2 decent sized pukes and 9 poopy diapers, yuck! Saturday moring around 2:30am, she woke up screaming bloody murder, I went in and checked to see what was the matter, and found her covered in puke. Poor girl, her bed had a puddle of puke in it, her hair was matted in it, just terrible. I showered her off and called the GI doc on-call. He said to shut off her feeds for 3 hours and then start them back up again. We started it back up around the time she got her morning meds, she threw up again right away. We kept it going this time and about an hour later she puked again. We decided to stop the feed again for a while and went to breakfast. During a diaper change, Maddie tried to suck on one of her wet wipes, at the breakfast table she saw a syrup bottle and went nuts trying to get it. Since she was showing obvious signs of getting dehydrated again, we called GI again. They told us to take her to the ER, and we headed in. We gave her a bottle just to satisfy her on the way, she drank 5 ounces, and promplty puked up 3 when we got there. We gave her a little more, and in the ER she puked up another 4.

She was admitted and placed on IV fluids once again (thank you mediport). Her blood results showed mild dehydration, so I guess we're lucky we didn't let it go on too long. Since we've been re-admitted, they've been running more tests and slowly working her back up to full feeds at which point we'll try concentrating the formula here and then working on bottle feeds. They did another stomach emptying study, which showed pretty much the same results (minor delay), so that basically rules that out once and for all. The doctors are also looking at other theories regarding her loose stools, like just about all of the medications she is on can cause diarreha and nausia (duh! we told them this), so they are trying things like holding some of her meds, giving others intravenously, etc. Still have to wait and see how that goes.

We'd like to thank everyone that has helped out over the last month, it means a lot to Rachael and I. We feel like we owe everyone more than just a thank you card, so hopefully we can thank everyone personally at Madeline's 1st birthday party (hint hint save the date! July 4th) that we are holding at the Big Creek Reservation (Memphis and Tiedeman) in the lower pavillion sometime in the early afternoon (11-1 or 12-2). Everyone is welcome to come and enjoy some light snacks in celebration of her first hard fought year. As a way of giving back, we'll be accepting donations to be given to Providence House (http://www.provhouse.org/) a crisis nursery that provides shelter and care to children actively at risk due to abuse and neglect. You can check their website for a wishlist if you need ideas.

Please pray Madeline can hold her food down and solidify her poo so we can go home again. Pray for baby Adalee that she continues to improve, and thank God for all the people in our lives and in the world that selflessly give help to those in need.

Until next time,

Ron