A Few Lessons

Lesson #1 - Don't tell yourself it's your last night sleeping in hospital, it only makes the next day and night harder
Lesson #2 - Don't start packing until you have the discharge slip in your hand, it only makes unpacking all the harder
Lesson #3 - No matter how many vitamins you take or how healthy you eat ... expect to get sick ... that's what happens when you hang out with all the bad germs.
Lesson #4 - Convince yourself that this is your new home ... and you really like it here .... that way the days won't seem so long and boring (especially when you're not feeling well).

Okay ... as you can tell, today was a bit discouraging. Several times now I had thought we would be home soon and it didn't happen, but today I was really sure that we would be going home. We started James on full strength feeds yesterday evening and continued with them throughout the night and it went well. His stools are slowly getting back to normal and as Rob mentioned he was back to himself yesterday. The one thing that is really good is that he's much more interested in food. He will pull up his high chair to let us know when he wants something to eat and he's been spending a fair amount of time in it. He doesn't eat huge amount, but it's the fact that he's so interested that surprises us. We wonder how this fits into the equation - did his gut have enough rests that it feels better? is the slow feeds easier on his stomach? is he hungry because he not getting full volume? This afternoon was our first attempt to take him off continous feeds and try him back onto larger feeds and if that goes well we will have to slowly work him back up to his full volume.

So what went wrong today?? This morning James woke with a raised temperature. Not necessarily considered a fever, but raised as James has a low body temperature normally (36.5C-37.0C). He woke with 37.5-37.7 temperatures. At first I didn't think to much of it and figured he'd shake it in an hour or so, carrying on with my desire to go home. But they did not go and continued to hang on in that area. The doctors did say that this can happen with the virus, that he'll have low fevers for a while, but yet he hasn't had fevers for several days. We were scared to go home and have them rise on us again, but yet he seems so well we really didn't want to stay any longer. It was decided that they'd come back later in the day and see how he was doing and then we could decide if we want to leave. The temps. continue to hang out in the high 37C area and then this afternoon when they did his vitals his SATS (oxygen) levels were low. Not bad, around 92-95%, but a healthy person should be 99-100% and James has usually been good in that area. When James has breathing difficulties he drops around 95-96%, so it seemed odd that they would be down since he's doing so well. His breathing continues to be faster then normal (36bpm), but only up around 48bpm, which makes sense considering he has a cold. With his SATS down our decision was made, we're going to have to stick around a bit longer and see what's going on.

James is doing well, he's completely happy in his own little room. He's received several early birthday gifts as well as some toys from the hospital and he keeps busy with them throughout the day. He is such an easy child (in that aspect) and we feel so blessed as we watch him. On the other hand, I'm having a hard time with this cold, a head congestion cold. That and lack of sleep makes the days long and tiring ... who knew a person could feel so tired after sitting around doing nothing all day.

Rob has another exam early tomorrow. Since he wasn't feeling well over the weekend he needs to get up very early tomorrow and study, which means I have to sleep at the hospital again tonight. Tuesday Rob has two exams, an intense day, and then he's done and can relax for a few weeks. Marietta has been home part of yesterday and for today, she must have had a busy week because she had a long nap this afternoon. I was able to go home and nap for a bit this afternoon, I did not make it to church as my head was pounding and I could hardly keep my eyes open, but now I must drag my butt back again. I hope you all had a blessed Sunday, it feels so wrong to not start off the week without hearing at least one sermon.