October 26, 2008

Good afternoon everyone! I'm sorry it has been so long since I last posted. Finding time to post is much harder now that I am at home (I sure am missing the second shift nurses about now!)

Last week was very busy, so I will try to catch you up. Laurie was discharged from Flowers Hospital in Dothan last Sunday afternoon. She was having fewer de-sats and heart rate drops after having the blood transfusion and IV antibiotics. The blood cultures after 48 hours were negative. However, she continued to have trouble taking a bottle due to upper respiratory congestion--either refusing to take the bottle or spitting up what she did take. We saw her pediatrician, Dr. Brown, on Tuesday and he started Laurie back on HMF (human milk fortifier) in order to increase her calorie intake without having to increase the amount of milk she takes--Laurie had only gained about 3 oz. in a week, up to 6 lbs. 5 oz. Dr. Brown also started Laurie on another antibiotic to hopefully help with congestion and encouraged us to continue using the humidifier.

Then on Wednesday, Mother, Mrs. Judy, Laurie, and I left at 7:00 a.m. for Birmingham for a follow-up ophthalmologist appointment. After Laurie's hospitalization, I called Dr. Carlo to see if he could see us while we were in Birmingham and he graciously agreed. We saw him at 11:00 a.m. and he recommended that we try feeding Laurie smaller amounts every 2 hours and agreed that her cold was still upper respiratory (her lungs sounded good). He also suggested that we get another humidifier with a control setting for the amount of humidity being released. He again reminded us of the importance of washing hands and everyone changing clothes before holding Laurie (Mother and Mrs. Judy have already brought an extra set of clothes to our house and Cole has never had so many baths!!!!). I felt much better just having Dr. Carlo look at Laurie!!! After that appointment we went back to the UAB townhouse, ate lunch, and met with the "oxygen man" to swap out oxygen tanks and get needed supplies. At 1:30 we left for Laurie's ophthalmologist appointment. If you have been keeping up with my blog, you know that ophthalmologist in Birmingham work on a totally different time clock than the rest of us and Wednesday was no exception. We finally saw Dr. Fiest and his report was O.K. The blood vessels that are growing back are still premature and the time frame for the Avastin injections is running out. So, Dr. Fiest wants to see Laurie back in two weeks and possibly do another round of Avastin injections or laser surgery. Needless to say, we are not out of the woods with her vision yet. After the eye appointment, we went back to the UAB townhouse to finish cleaning up and turn in all the keys. We also made a stop at Babies-R-Us for a new humidifier and made several stops to feed Laurie. We finally returned home at 10:00 p.m. Laurie did great for such a long day of traveling and appointments, but the rest of us were exhausted!!

This week we will go back to see Dr. Brown on Tuesday. Laurie's congestion does seem to be doing better, so maybe we can go back to 3 hour feedings. As you can imagine, two hour feedings leave very little time for sleep or anything else!!! We will go back to Birmingham on November 3rd to see Dr. Fiest and for a pulmonary appointment.

Thanks to all of you for continuing to keep up with Laurie's progress. God continues to bless our family with your support. Please continue to pray for Laurie's lung development and for her vision. Also, please pray for all four of us as we adjust to our new norm at home (working everyone's schedule around Laurie's feedings, monitor alarms going off at all hours, little sleep, confinement to the house, Cole having to share our attention, etc...)

Love to all!
Todd, Leah, Cole, and Laurie