Crazy Week!

Well, that was sure a crazy week! Poor Elaina DID NOT like being back in the hospital. I don't think I've seen her pouty lip quiver as much in her whole life as I did the 4 days she was at Primary Children's this past week. We got to come home Thursday evening and she slept most of the following 24 hours. Don't get me wrong, she'd wake up.... but after about 20 - 30 minutes she'd drift back to sleep. Being in the hospital is exhausting! The good news is that she's stable from a Cardiology standpoint, and her numerous blood cultures and mucous samples never grew anything. So the conclusion is that she just didn't have any reserves to fight off her double ear infection and (assumed) strep throat.

To make matters worse, she didn't tolerate the changes in her feedings. We've put the increase on hold for now, she needs to get feeling better before we make any big changes. Part of the problem with the feedings, was that PCMC didn't have her "brand" of formula in house, and the person that orders them was on vacation. Hmmm. SO, dietary put her on a similar formula and then increased her volume from 700 to 1030. It was not a gradual increase, just BOOM, here ya go! Well, Elaina's body did not like the different formula, and the fact that the volume was increased so drastically caused us some grief. She turned into a little mucous ball, and was gagging and retching several times an hour. Because of her Nissen, she's unable to throw up, but that doesn't mean that her poor little body didn't try. She was so miserable. She couldn't even sleep for more than 30 minutes at a time and because of the aspiration risk, she didn't get put on her bi-pap for 2 nights. Poor baby. I finally brought in my formula from home and the doctor rescinded the order for increased feeds. Within 24 hours her oxygen requirement was down from 4 liters to 1.5 liters, and she was gagging and retching much less.

Once we were close to her baseline oxygen needs, we only had to wait until she was 24 hours without a fever. Well, we -Dr Black included!- were so anxious to get discharged that he wrote the orders and we were packed up and ready to go when the 24 hour mark hit. It was SO NICE to get home! I think Elaina was a little confused, because she was still unhappy when we first got home, but after her "rest day", she's back to her happy self.

Oh, and this morning, she's back to her 1 liter need of O2 and still satting high!

You go girl!

Thanks for checking in on us!

Hugs,
Hollie, Ben and Elaina