Vidant-PICU edition

We are back at Vidant. Keller was admitted July 4th or early July 5th depending on how you want to look at it.  After several days of him eating less and vomiting more we called the on-call doctor on the 4th and received the advice to take him to the ER.  Keller's vomiting has slowly increased to the point where he was unable to keep down any milk for about 12 hours.  His 4th vomit for the day left him weak, pale and whimpering and that was all this momma could take.  They were expecting us when we got here and we were taken back immediately.  Keller had labs drawn, x-rays done and an IV put in.  We got to snuggle him through most of it but once he was awakened for any treatment he cried and screamed.  He was generally inconsolable yesterday and that makes for a rough day too.  He used all of his energy crying or vomiting and had very little left for sucking.  Or perhaps he felt so bad and so tired he wasn't interested in eating, he couldn't tell me.

Last week after several talks with several of his doctors it was deemed that Keller should probably have a G-tube to help us get to the surgery.  His weight gain is poor, eating effort is poor and we are losing ground instead of gaining.  Friday morning his surgeon called me to put us on the schedule for the following Friday (11th).  We were to see his pediatrician on the 8th and cardiology on the 10th so all in all that made for a busy week.

Part of me still dreaded the surgery involved but part of me saw the surgery as a huge relief that we no longer would have to sit with a bottle in his face all day, stressed out, trying to reach a goal.  I simply do not know how to feed a sleeping baby a bottle by mouth.  The surgeon told me we could still feed him by mouth post-tube but what he didn't finish we could put in his G-tube, bypassing tiring out the boy by making him work so hard for nourishment.  I was excited that he might break 8 pounds and start filling out his sweet little cheeks.  But then there was the vomiting.  I didn't know how we were going to make it another week not reaching his goal and vomiting up what we didn't get in him.

So here we are, back at the hospital.

Little guy, BIG bed!

First wagon trip, on his way to x-ray.

There are a couple of ways this could go.  Because Keller went quite a while without good intake (vomit related and also some time here at the hospital where he couldn't get anything by mouth) his labs are off a little.  They started him on fluids today to correct that and hope that he is in balance by Monday.  If he looks good Monday we could proceed with the G-tube placement then.  If he is not where they want him Monday then the surgery will be Friday.  Either way, he'll be here at the PICU until his surgery... so he may be here all week. The post tube placement recovery time is a also a few days because they have to take the proper steps in initiating its use.

We are unsure what is causing his vomiting.  It could be reflux, it could be medications, it could be formula at this point its hard to tell.  Currently Keller has an NG (nasogastric) tube in place.  They started giving him milk at 2 pm today through that tube and so far he has not vomited, it's 7pm now.  So pray that this pattern continues.  He needs to grow and gain to be ready for his heart surgery and he can't do that without calories be they ingested from his mouth or deposited in his belly by a tube, we will take what we can get.

Thank you again for your prayers!
Allison

All tucked in after his NG tube was placed.