Joshua has continued to have daily visits from our surgeon to squeeze on his belly and apply silver nitrate to the over granulating tissue that is preventing the wound from healing properly. We were excited on Monday because Dr. Bhatia decided she did not need to take Josh to the A side to open the wound up more. Unfortunately, our excitement was short lived since he ended up having the wound reopened on Tuesday after more pus came out when the wound was poked and prodded. Josh received a dose of morphine and a topical anaesthetic before the doctor cut open the left part of the wound. She cut out a stitch that she thinks may have been a source of irritation and searched for any remaining pockets of pus. Dr. Bhatia is hopeful allowing the left side of the wound to drain for several more days and continuing the silver nitrate process will be sufficient to finally heal his stubborn wound. She also collected a wound culture so we are waiting on the results from that. We may hear something today about the culture since it will have been 48 hours. Josh is currently on isolation because of the MRSA which means he cannot leave the room. I am so hoping we can get him off isolation soon so he can go back outside and to the play area. Two negative wound cultures are necessary in order for him to gain a small amount of freedom back. I am so tired of fighting this sneaky infection and even more tired of hearing our surgeon call this the peskiest wound infection she has ever dealt with. Please, please, please let this be the end of our relationship with MRSA.
Josh's last dose of antibiotic was earlier in the week. As expected, his poops are getting much better now that he has been off the vancomycin for a few days. This is great news and is part of the reason his feeds were increased to 30 cc's yesterday - a whole ounce of milk every 3 hours! And we finally got the much anticipated news that the rate of Josh's IV nutrition is being dropped. This is also a necessary part of the equation for bringing Josh home. We won't know how much of the milk Josh is actually absorbing until the IV nutrition is lessened and we see whether he still continues gaining weight. He is currently up to 10 lbs 8 oz and stretching out like a weed! He is long and lean like his Daddy.
Josh's diaper rash is still a problem since he had to go back on the antibiotics. We are continuing to do the "oxygen therapy" with him and it is working well. He finally managed to poop in the oxygen mask the other night and it was quite a production to get him and the crib cleaned up afterwards. A few towels, blankets, and the oxygen mask were trashed by the time we were done. I snapped a few pictures with him laying in the crib with his little robe on, but I will not post the image showing everything since I don't want Josh to be embarrassed ten years from now. I do have the full length shot, though, and will use it to bribe Josh once he gets older!
Josh celebrated his 3 month birthday on Halloween. It is hard to believe he is already 1/4 of a year old (and that we have been in the hospital that long). Since he is on isolation he was not able to parade around the hospital showing off his adorable bat costume. Plenty of nurses came to see him, though. Apparently he was the talk of the NICU!
One of the most frequent questions I get asked is when we are going home. The only estimate I have been given was by our surgeon the day of Josh's last surgery when she was giving us the short gut diagnosis. At the time she estimated another 2-6 months before we can go home. Now that we are a month out from the reconnection surgery, I have started quizzing the neonatologists about where in this 2-6 month range our homecoming will fall. I am not receiving any good answers. It is simply too early for the doctors to estimate so they are very hesitant to give me any kind of date. I had a dream one of our doctors told me Josh could not go home until he got teeth, but I have been assured teeth are not a requirement for discharge - thank God! So for now we keep taking things one day at a time which turns into one week at a time and eventually one month at a time. The seasons just keep changing outside our small hospital room window.
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| Josh in his first Halloween outfit. |
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