Dear Family and Friends,
I hope all of you had an enjoyable holiday with your families! We spent our Christmas with Everett, our families, and Jack. All in all, it was a different Christmas, but we look forward to next year when Everett may be walking :-)
Up until Christmas Eve, Everett had been doing really, really well. He was tolerating his feedings, doing great on the ventilator, and gaining weight. Then, out of nowhere, he started vomiting and "dumping" out of his ileostomy (dumping is when food moves so quickly through the stomach and intestines that it doesn't have time to process and basically, what goes in the mouth comes out the other end). The doctors immediately stopped his feeding and started investigating possible causes. While the doctors were confident that Everett was just getting too much breast milk too quickly, they decided to check for infection as well. All his lab work came back normal. But Zac and I were not convinced given our experiences with his last two infections. At our urging, the doctors ran more tests and discovered that Everett's central line, which was placed during his surgery, was infected.
Receiving this news on Christmas day was difficult. We were worried and scared and couldn't believe that after all the progress we'd made we were still battling the same things. But the good news is that unlike his previous infections, they were able to identify the bacteria responsible. That enabled the doctors to prescribe the right antibiotics very quickly and thankfully, Everett's condition improved rapidly. As of Sunday, his feedings were resumed. Today he is receiving 3mls an hour of breast milk and is tolerating it well.
The eye surgeon examined him yesterday and found that Everett still doesn't need the laser surgery...yet. Although he's still convinced that he will need it eventually. This week showed no change...his eyes are not worse, but they are not improved either. The doctor has increased the frequency of his exams to every three days and will see him again on Thursday. The thing with Retinopathy is that it can progress very quickly, in a matter of hours, so frequent exams can make all the difference. We pray every day that we will get a break on this surgery and that Everett's eyes do what they need to do.
He has been on the ventilator since he was transferred three weeks ago. Today the doctors informed us that he is finally ready to come off and breathe on his own. Tomorrow they plan to extubate him. Zac and I are excited and cannot wait to see his face again without all the tape and tubes. And we are pretty sure that we will hear him cry. Over the past two weeks he has started to react to discomfort like a full term baby would, making a crying face complete with a quivering chin, tomato-red skin, and a furrowed brow. We can't wait to hear his voice!!!
Unfortunately Zac and I both came down with a cold this weekend so we are staying home until Friday. We don't want to get Everett or anyone else sick too. The nurses have been wonderful about keeping us close to Everett while we've been away...one even went so far as to email us pictures from her personal iPhone last night. I'm thankful that even though it is such a large hospital, the nurses still take the time for personal attention. It makes all the difference for us.
Zac and I hope that you have a safe and happy New Year! We are hoping that all the bumps in the road will be left in 2009 and it will be smooth sailing in 2010!
The Bollinger Family
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