We are back home and have been enjoying being home for the past 2 and a half weeks. It feels great to be home and to be able to go about our daily lives! Caybree is doing great - eating lots and gaining weight! She has gained a pound and a half since we have come home. If she keeps eating like she has been she will be 10 pounds by the end of the weekend! Her wrist are starting to get a wrinkle and almost a wrinkle mid-thigh - go Caybree go!! We went to local photographers to get some family pictures done - we are very excited with the proofs. Enjoy looking at the few I posted. (I will write about our last stay in the hospital at the bottom of this entry.)
We had been home for 4 weeks and 2 days when Caybree got sick. It started during the night, where she would throw-up every so often, not after feedings - she was just throwing up. So, after a sleepless night, I phoned our pediatrician and asked what I should do. He said to wait 24 hours and if it continued to head into Children's Hospital. I still wanted a doctor to look at her, just to give me peace of mind, so I took her to my doctor in Winkler. Dr. Bessie phoned Caybree's pediatrician in the city and together they decided that we should take her to Children's right away. Of course, being who I am, I cried all the way home to get Mark and all the way to the city. I just kept thinking, "I can't do another 6 weeks of this."
Once we got to the Children's ER they took us into a room right away. They took x-rays and gave her an IV to rehydrate her. It took 5 pokes before they got one in - again, I was crying just as much as Caybree. After a few hours they had a room ready for us upstairs on the surgery ward. The x-rays showed that there was a blockage in the small intestine. When we met with the surgeon the next day he said that the blockages can work themselves out, but not always. They would give it a day or so and if it didn't work itself out, off to surgery again. During the wait, we had x-rays on both Tuesday and Wednesday to see how the blockage was doing. (She was no longer throwing up because they put a NG tube down her nose once again. This time it was for suctioning her stomach instead of feeding. By the end of Tuesday, the stuff that was being suctioned was BM because nothing could pass through because of the blockage.)
Wednesday afternoon they decided that they would have to go ahead with the surgery because the blockage just wasn't getting better. She went down to the ER at 8:00pm and we were with her in the recovery room by 9:00pm. The blockage was due to two small adhesions from her original surgery. We got the go ahead to feed her in 48 hours! (She hadn't been able to eat at all during this time because she would have just brought it back up. She was so sick, she had no desire to suck, not even on her soother. I was very stressed about her remembering how to eat. We had just been done with the feeding tube for a week when we went back to the hospital.) Well, on Friday, when Caybree could eat again, she showed us!! She latched on and ate like she had never had a problem! What a relief! And the news got even better - we were going to go home the next day!! Only 6 days in the hospital!!
My mom had taken Brookelyn to Souris with her after Caybree's surgery on Wednesday, so they were coming in to pick Caybree and I up. (Mark was working nights on the weekend.) My bags were packed and we were just waiting for our ride - 10 minutes to go. They decided to change the bandages before we left. (Thank God that they did!) As they were pulling back the bandages, the nurse saw some green - I never noticed, I saw something else starting to happen. To use the medical term that was written on the discharge papers, Caybree had an "abdominal wall dehiscence." That is all the detail I will go into - feel free to look it up and if you do, you will understand why I didn't sleep that night and why it took me 3 bandage changes until I could be there holding her hand again and why I still get the chills when I think that it could have happened in the car or once we were home. This led to another surgery to repair the "abdominal wall dehiscence." Infectious Disease were contacted to see about antibiotics for the infections. (There were 2 infections within the wound.) Under their instructions we had to remain in the hospital on IV antibiotics for a week and then continue the antibiotics orally for 8 days.
The last week was fairly uneventful other then another long round of trying to put in another IV. (It took an anethesist and a pediatric surgeon several attempts before they got one to go in her abdominal wall.) Because of where the IV was located, they took her down to surgery on Monday to put in a central line. When we were leaving the recovery room for the 3 time in less than a week, I gave Caybree a very stern talking to that she had been through enough and we didn't want her to go back there again!
Sunday, July 27th, 2008 - Brookelyn's Third Birthday - we get to go home!! Yeah! And we hope and pray that Caybree doesn't have to go through any more. Now it is time for her to be healthy and grow.
Our first bike ride. Caybree loved it as long as we were moving - she didn't care about sitting in the driveway and getting her picture taken! As for Brookelyn - she has always enjoyed going for bike rides.
Well, we have now been home for 1 month and 4 days!! Last time we were home we were only home for a month. We have beat that now by an extra 4 days. As you can see, Caybree is very excited about this!! (Doesn't she have a great smile?!) Things are going very well. She is eating lots and is even getting chubby!
