New Beginnings and Isolation

Last Night our church ward had their New Beginnings Program. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this let me explain. At the age of 12 all boys and girls enter the youth program, for the girls its called the Young Women. New Beginnings is a night that they welcome in the incoming girls, there are a few more things that take place but as far as it relates to us right now, that's the purpose. Its usually held at the beginning of the year but Charley was the only girl her age coming in and our ward was split earlier so this is when it was held. I was asked to give a 2 minute introduction on Charley which I of course cried all the way through. (That's what you get when you have an over tired, emotionally drained Mom who has to accept her little girl is not so little anymore!) It was a very sweet night and very good program! Charley is counting down the days before she turns 12.

During the program the hospital called our cell phones. Earlier in the day a viral culture was done on Aaron's lung secretions. Everyone thought this had already been done but it was realized that panel was missed and so they did it yesterday. They got a positive result on Influenza Type 3. Yes, essentially the flu! This is not the flu that we get shots for but it is the flu that causes pneumonia. It is rare to have it in the NICU, and as its rare Aaron must have it as that is the way we play here! Because its viral there isn't really much that we can do other than let it run its course. With it being so contagious and because we are in the NICU Aaron is officially in isolation. This means he will not have neighbors and to touch him we must be in gown, mask, and gloves. We also get another visit from infectious disease. Its frustrating to know Aaron has two major issues that are absolutely preventable. Unfortunately we have no idea where either came from, it could have been one of us to bring the germs in, one of the medical staff, or a visitor of our or another baby that we've shared a room with. With either one of these illnesses his date with the CATH lab is uncertain and may need to get pushed back.

Earlier in the day Aaron had an allergic reaction to his vanco antibiotic so that was discontinued. He had 8 days of treatment on it and we hope it was sufficient to kill off his staff infection. His belly has once again started to swell and his urine output has hit the brakes. He is still processing all his feedings so he'll continue to get fed. His IV failed later in the afternoon and after 5 nurses tried they finally got a line in the back of his head. His veins are shot. His merapenum is still needed so surgery will be called in this morning to put in a central line. Depending on who is on for surgery today they may or may not do this procedure at his bedside. If its Sam's surgeon he will, so that is who we are hoping for.

A KUB was also done yesterday to see if there were any blockages of his belly, (there wasn't). In the film you could see a good portion of the lungs. They both looked as if they were opening up and certainly looked better than the last few days. You could see there was still a good amount of junk in them but for the most part looked better. His oxygen needs and CO2 levels have also come down and his vent settings were weaned 3 times yesterday.

Today is going to be another very busy day for our little guy. We hope to get some answers from infectious disease to see how long this may take for Aaron to get over and if we should worry about our other kiddos as they have asthma. We've researched some on our own but still have a list of questions.