Thursday, January 15

This morning I was so exhausted I could hardly drag myself out of bed. I think it's all catching up to me! Greg made it to the hospital in time to give Caden his next “feeding”. I didn't make it until after that though.

When I got to the hospital, Greg told me they had taken an x-ray of Caden's chest today to check the lungs and make sure there wasn't any fluid around his heart. But we hadn't heard what the results of that were yet.

Then, an opthamologist resident came in to put some drops in Caden's eyes and said she'd be back in a few hours to do an exam. The opthamology consult had been ordered because I guess it's not unusual for babies with multiple congenital defects to have problems with their eyes as well. When she came back later to check his eyes, she said everything looked great. Then, another opthamologist came in and did another exam to follow up and she agreed that his eyes were beautiful and there was nothing wrong with them. Great news for us!

While I was holding Caden, the x-ray tech came back and said they needed to get two more x-rays of Caden's chest. One from the front, and one from the side. So, they took those and when they were done, Greg took his turn holding Caden. We are still waiting to find out what the x-rays showed.

I was pretty wiped out today, so I came back to RMH to rest. I've been napping and pumping and pretty soon I'm going to run back over to the hospital and get something to eat. Then I'll return to my napping and pumping routine. Hopefully when I get up tomorrow I'll be feeling more spry. I have a touch of a sore throat and don't want to run the risk of passing anything on to Caden or any of the other babies in NICU. So I'm playing it safe for now. Please pray for me so that I don't have to spend too much time away from my baby! I already don't get to see him and hold him enough as it is.

After I came back to RMH, Emily called to check in with me to see how things were going. I gave her all the updates we had and mentioned to her I wished I had asked the cardiologist where Caden was in the “line-up” for surgery. She said she didn't know for sure, but she had another family she was working with in NICU whose baby needed heart surgery as well and they were told there was one other baby boy ahead of theirs for surgery. Emily thought that meant it was us. However, she didn't know that for sure, and there could certainly be other pediatric patients ahead of him in line as well. But it sounded like we were toward the top of the list. We shall see...

Later in the afternoon, we heard back about the x-rays. I guess there is a little fluid in Caden's lungs, but not a lot. However, it's enough that they might start him on Lasix in order to dry them out a little bit. And, they said today that his breathing was a little faster than it had been. He's been breathing faster than normal already. So, if that continues, it's possible they might put him on a ventilator just to help him breathe easier. So far he was doing okay but they were going to monitor him to see if that changed. In the meantime, they are going to give him a shot to help guard him against the RSV virus. It may not completely prevent the virus, but if a baby does get it after receiving the shot, it will greatly reduce the severity of it. Caden falls into a high risk category because of his heart defect as well as his diaphragm defect. So, after weighing the pros and cons, we felt this was definitely the way to go.

So, that's all for now. We'll see what tomorrow brings. It seems things are always changing. In the meantime, I could use your prayers that I don't get sick because otherwise I can't see my baby.