As Jeff mentioned in the last post, the days seem to blur together. I'm looking forward to the day when we can think more about the future rather than living minute to minute.
On Saturday, Kathy was on call. She spent a few hours with Henry before switching off at the 6:45PM shift change with Cindy, who was his evening nurse.
I went with Jeff in the evening to visit Henry, but Jeff did all the holding and changing. I spent most of the time reading Harry Potter. Henry weighed 1965 grams. I don't recall anything eventful happening. Jeff held, changed, and fed Henry.
On Sunday, Joyce was on duty. Apparently, she isn't going on vacation until next week. But, Holly and Kathy are on vacation.
Henry had an excellent day nursing. As Jeff has mentioned before, getting Henry latched is usually a big production. I haven't had a whole lot of luck unless Joyce helps, holding Henry's head. She has the magic touch. Long story short, Henry figured things out yesterday. No big production. It was nice.
Jeff and I finally made a decision about the immunizations. We decided to get his first round of shots (5 total). I think that Joyce was happy that Jeff and I had finally made a decision about Henry's shots, but she was unhappy that I decided to sign the forms the day she was on duty. The doctors recommend shots at 2 months, even if the babies are born early. Jeff and I have been dragging our feet on them, because one of Jeff's nephews had a negative reaction to the MMR, so we are well aware of the potential (not so well publicized) side effects of immunizations. Doctors don't know why the side effects sometimes occur. I've taken up the charge of doing a lot of research on various medical procedures throughout Henry's stay, but I gave Jeff the task of doing the immunization research. Of the five shots given at 2 months (DtaP #1: diphtheria , tetanus, and pertussis; IPV #1: polio; Comvax #1 (Hib & Hep B): haemophilus influenzae and hepatitis b; PCV #1: pneumococcal), the one that is a small concern is the diphtheria shot. We weighed the costs and benefits. Unfortunately, whooping cough is active in the Tucson community, so we decided that Henry needed the vaccine. I'm sure that we'll revisit the issue before his MMR (given at 12 months).
Joyce really hates giving shots. None of the nurses like doing it. Karin said that they don't mind giving IVs because the IV is just a pin prick. Immunizations are more painful (inserting fluids in spots that aren't supposed to have fluid in them normally). I felt kind of bad doing that to Joyce, because she has been so great to us. But, I wanted the best nurse to give the shots to Henry. And, well, that meant Joyce. I originally thought that they were going to give the shots over a week, but through some miscommunication, Henry got all five at one sitting. At least, it is over with. Joyce had a hard time finding someone to help her. Everyone she asked suddenly had other things to do. But Karin, who also hates giving shots, helped her out. Before giving the shots, Joyce asked me if I was sure that I wanted to watch. I felt obliged. If Henry feels pain, I feel like I should have to suffer through watching it. Joyce and Karin jokingly offered me tissue before they began as both of them have seen me tear up a few times over the past few months. Joyce has had the luck of being on duty during big Henry moments (e.g., the NEC announcement, the Stage 2 ROP finding, etc.), which means consoling me and helping me see the big picture on the NICU roller coaster.
Joyce gave Henry some sucrose (minimizes pain in babies) before they began. Joyce and Karin gave two shots at once (one in each thigh simultaneously), so that the pain would be over with as quickly as possible. Joyce convinced Karin to give the fifth one (in his arm, because his thighs got a little swollen with two rounds of two shots). Henry handled them like a champ. He cried a little, but all in all, he bore the pain well. Over the next 24 hours, Henry was given Tylenol to take the edge off the pain.
My mom arrived before the shots were given. Once the shots were given and I was convinced Henry was OK, my mom held him, and I went home.
Jeff took the evening shift at the hospital. Rosalind (whom I have never met) was Henry's evening nurse last night. Sunday is measurement night. Henry's head increased .5 cm. His length increased 1.5 cm. And, he weighed 2000 grams!
Today (Monday), Linda was Henry's day nurse. I arrived early. I ran into my dad at the entrance. He arrived a little earlier than usual so that he could give Henry his bottle. When we arrived, Linda had just given Henry a bath, complete with fresh leads and a new pulsocs. I came in early to attend a nursing lecture on baby blues with Holly. Holly is on vacation, but she comes to the in-service nursing lectures. The lecture was held in an auditorium in the hospital. There was a play after the lecture, but I left halfway through it. It was a little too artsy for me (not to mention that I'm a bit of a snob when it comes to theater...watching A LOT of theater in NYC and Philly made me this way). And, I missed Henry. It was kind of hard being in the same building as Henry but not with Henry for an extended period of time.
I went back upstairs to the NICU to nurse Henry. Linda reported that Henry had taken 52 mls from my dad at 8AM. After I nursed Henry around 12PM, Holly stopped by (she had stayed for the entire play and said I didn't miss much). Henry's cannula was askew, so she got new tubing. His old tubing was completely blocked with dried snot. I strongly suspect that he was getting almost no oxygen from it. The good news about this is that it suggests that he might be OK without the cannula. Holly did an excellent job taping the new cannula down. A lot of people asked Holly what she was doing in the NICU during her vacation. She explained that she'd been at the in-service lecture. I've never observed anyone take as much joy from her vocation as Holly does. I know that she really cares about Henry. She's become a good friend to me. She's great at what she does. And, she truly enjoys babies in general.
There are a lot of good nurses in the NICU. Enjoying babies is just one of those things that really makes Holly, Kathy, and Joyce stand out. Other nurses, of course, like babies too. But with the Dream Team, it is a pleasure to watch them interact with their patients. Mind you, their patients (being sick, hence in the NICU) aren't always in the best of moods. They handle all sorts of cases brilliantly.
Today, Henry had a few heart rate drops while spitting up/choking, but the drops weren't long enough to set the alarms off. He was a grazer today, wanting to nurse for a little while and then sleeping. My mom came in the afternoon. Henry was supposed to have a GI exam today, but the doctor never showed up. Apparently, there is only one GI pediatric specialist who does the reflux tracking in all of Tucson. So, hopefully, the tracking will take place sometime this week. I asked Linda what happened to Henry's hearing test. I didn't think that there was any wrong with his hearing because I know he hates noise. But he can't leave the NICU until the hearing test is done. Linda found out that they did it two nights ago. His hearing is fine.
The other good news for the day was that Henry's hematocrit (red cell count) is at 31. That's still low, but it is a big increase from last Sunday's 28. He's making great progress on this. Hopefully, his hematocrit will continue to rise, and he'll continue to get bigger (meaning more lung tissue), and then we can truly get rid of the cannula and stop worrying about desaturations.
Jeff is taking the evening shift at the hospital. He wanted me to stay home and get some rest, because I got up early this morning (and he likes some alone time with his son). I'm going to sign off now and return to Harry Potter.
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