Let's get off the "snack plan"

Now that we are post op our goals have shifted and we are working....pushing to do whatever it takes to get out of the hospital. Micah has been doing well overall. He has been resting for good amounts of time and he has been more content while awake. There are still periods of pain and those are being managed as best as possible. We are hoping he can replace more of his mophine and valium with tylenol soon. He has been a real trouper. Tonight he was taken off the Oxygen monitor and the IV food so that is three pumps total. Now he only has one pump and it's the same one he will be coming home with. I think this is going to make a huge difference in the quality of rest he can get. Being on four pumps all doing something different for different amounts of time and with a different alarms can be taxing for all of us. I'm believing for a peaceful night tonight.

Our current focus is his feeding. The length of our stay is completely based on how he tolerates his food. The formula he is on comes straight from a pharmaceutical company, it is as basic as it comes and is basically digested for him. His body is not having to work very hard to digest it. Complications with food tolerance will probably be based on the volume he can handle. He is on a continuous pump of formula 24 hours a day. For most of today we have been asking whoever is assigned to us about increasing his feeds. Micah was on less than half of what his goal is. Several of the doctors and the dietician all were saying "Ya, let's increase his feeds" but no one was actually writing any orders to change anything. We were seeing this pattern and when Randy talked to the next doctor he said,"Let's get off the snack plan. He can handle it, let's get going."  The primary hospitalist doctor then wrote the orders and we began to make progress. As of this moment he is tolerating almost half of what the goal is along with 1 oz. bottles that we can give him at our discretion. They are increasing the feeds slowly every three hours to see how he does. We are also watching to make sure he does not begin to dry heave. This is a sign that he is not tolerating the volume of food. Since he has had a fundoplication surgery this does not allow Micah to spit up or throw up. Dry heaving can also result in damaging the surgery sights and even pulling out the fundoplication surgery. So far so good. Now we believe, pray and wait it out.

As we spoke with the doctor, we learned they are hoping to send us home Monday or Tuesday. This news was a little discouraging. We are all very tired of the hospital routine. We miss being together as a family unit. The every other night at the hospital is wearing on Randy and I. The hospital food is lacking and take-out is tiring...both are expensive. We miss cooked vegetables. The girls are well taken care of by Mama, Papa and Aunties but are still missing our routines. We are all craving our new normal whatever that is going to look like. Now we have to believe that God's timing is perfect in all of this. We've seen the blessing of having Micah in a safe stable place during the constrution, next is the water heater I guess, yes...the water heater is going out. Monday morning we have a company coming out to see what's going on. Thank goodness for a home warranty. So, we are continuing to remind ourselves of God's faithfulness when we begin to get weary.

Here are some things we are thankful for:
-A Children's Hospital so close to home.
-Incredible hospital staff who have been wonderful to us.
-Family and friends to help during this time with a variety of things.
-Randy being able to take this time off.
-Ice Tea, Chocolate, Chik-fil-A, In-n-Out
-Wireless Internet and a laptop my brother recently "frankensteined" together for us.
-Sound proofing upgrade to our home.
-Pain medications
-"Almost's" because that means something bad did not actually happen. Such as Micah "almost" pulled out his IV (a few days ago).
-A Home Warranty to fix our water heater.
-Facebook and blogging
-The Olympics and Cable
-Crocheting, Knitting and Knifty Knitting
-Most of all the prayers that span the globe for Micah and our family.