when I started this blog five years ago, I was a pet sitter and the name animal-crackers made sense. now I'm a stay-at-home-dad and freelance writer, but rather than confuse everyone by getting a different blog, it's just easier to keep posting things here.
Monday, October 10, 2005
Cold
I hate it when I skip several days on the blog. I feel like I have to come up with something really interesting for everyone to read. And I'm not feeling terribly inspired, but here's something.
Friday afternoon, Andrea visited Dylan as he suffered one apnea attack after another. He had been down to one apnea per day. Now suddenly, he was having one every 5 seconds.
Later that evening, I visited and learned that a piece of Dylan's equipment had failed. It's a machine attached to the ventilator that mixes the oxygen with warm moist air. When it broke, and no one noticed, Dylan was left sucking cold, dry air.
The nurse took Dylan's temperature when Andrea arrived around 4 pm and he was a toasty 98 degrees. Andrea left around 5 pm while Dylan was still suffering numerous apnea episodes.
The nurse took his temperature again at 6 pm and he was a not-so-toasty 94 degrees. I'm not sure if this was before or after they discovered the equipment failure.
The doctor in charge of the NICU called us that evening to tell us they were starting Dylan on antibiotics and suspending his feedings. He didn't know what was wrong or whether it was related to the two hours of cold air.
We slept Friday night with the phone next to the bed.
By Saturday morning, he was showing signs of improvement. And by Sunday he was feeding again -- albeit at half what he was eating before. And he had gained 2 ounces.
He weighed 3 pounds 3 ounces yesterday. One of those ounces was probably water-weight from the IV.
Also, I held him for a second time yesterday.
It seems everything is back to normal.
Friday afternoon, Andrea visited Dylan as he suffered one apnea attack after another. He had been down to one apnea per day. Now suddenly, he was having one every 5 seconds.
Later that evening, I visited and learned that a piece of Dylan's equipment had failed. It's a machine attached to the ventilator that mixes the oxygen with warm moist air. When it broke, and no one noticed, Dylan was left sucking cold, dry air.
The nurse took Dylan's temperature when Andrea arrived around 4 pm and he was a toasty 98 degrees. Andrea left around 5 pm while Dylan was still suffering numerous apnea episodes.
The nurse took his temperature again at 6 pm and he was a not-so-toasty 94 degrees. I'm not sure if this was before or after they discovered the equipment failure.
The doctor in charge of the NICU called us that evening to tell us they were starting Dylan on antibiotics and suspending his feedings. He didn't know what was wrong or whether it was related to the two hours of cold air.
We slept Friday night with the phone next to the bed.
By Saturday morning, he was showing signs of improvement. And by Sunday he was feeding again -- albeit at half what he was eating before. And he had gained 2 ounces.
He weighed 3 pounds 3 ounces yesterday. One of those ounces was probably water-weight from the IV.
Also, I held him for a second time yesterday.
It seems everything is back to normal.
2 Comments:
Poor Dylan. His health is see sawing. I'm glad you got to hold him again!
I cant wait til this rollercoaster is done for you guys and he's home and happy. I can't begin to imagine the emotional stress you are under.
Remind wifey to take the damn camera will ya? I need new pictures!!
Post a Comment
<< Home