sunday 9/15/2013

Ava is having a strange few days. She has been throwing up pretty regularly. Shaun and I got serious about it today. I feel like they are kind of complacent on the weekends thinking "we'll figure it out Monday" or "Her primary NP will look into it when she gets back." Throwing up is very scary to Shaun and I because it has indicated serious sickness in the past, and she has aspirated due to throwing up. Shaun said that the NP today didn't know that this wasn't normal for Ava AT ALL. I thought her diaper smelled funny and she was definitely not acting normal. She had little bouts of extreme pain. I was just speculating that it might burn when she pees.  It appears that she throws up like clockwork an hour after sodium chloride and potassium chloride meds that go through the NG. So they got a bunch of labs and urine culture, switched feeds back to over two and a half hours, and decided to mix the nasty meds in with the breast milk. We'll see . I'm hoping we can wean her from the lasix faster so she can get off the potassium chloride and sodium chloride.     She's up to 92mLs per feed which is every 3 hours. It is nearly continuous, which means she doesn't feel hungry..which means she has little motivation for bottle practice. I don't think we're going to make any headway on oral feedings before discharge. The feedings are optional, and most nurses opt out of the bottle feed for one reason or another. I'm not pushing it either, because I can't be there regularly to be consistent.        Shaun and I are very worn down. We are feeling very detached from Ava. I'm sure there's some psychosocial sense to this-but its rough. The older she grows the more apparent the developmental differences are between she and Ivy who we see and interact with every day. My time is so limited at the hospital and it is not always when Ava is awake. 

1am update: Ava has thrown up twice tonight. They tried to get blood twice but couldn't get any. So she got poked for nothing. The doctor cancelled all the labs and the urine culture that the NP ordered. He looked at her and said she looked fine. Ava was wide awake playing at 1am. He said they'd discuss it in rounds Monday. Grrr, it's not like there's something magical that occurs Mondays!