NOVEMBER 5, 2008 - Hi everyone. I'm sorry that we haven't been updating very much lately, but life isn't quite as, well, not exciting, but busy since Logan has been released from the hospital. But, I have been getting requests for updates, so I'll try to start updating more. Well, everything has been going well lately. Logan has been a little ornery today, but that's not exactly new. He's still being a stinker and won't sleep in his crib, only in our laps in the chair. We have, though, on a few different occassions, gotten him to sleep in his crib for about four hours at one time. That's happened a handful of times, so it seems that we're at least on the right track.
We're still having a lot of problems with him eating. He will eat baby food, but we can't get him to drink anything. We've tried bottles, sippy cups, the items that a feeding therapist gave us, even pop bottles (he loves playing with them so we figured we give it a shot), but to no avail. They have talked about inserting a feeding tube, but now they're rethinking that since his weight is staying stable. So, at least that is some good news.
According to his nurse everything is going really well with him and so she thinks that he will be able to go home when they thought, which is the middle of next month. It would be great to be home before Christmas, even if we can't celebrate in the traditional way that we usually do. When it comes to holidays, Halloween went well. Except the poor thing was in the clinic from noon until about eight. He had to get blood which takes about an hour to get and two to three hours to be infused. He dressed up as a lion, and he was absolutely adorable. He didn't seem to mind the headpiece at all. When he was in the clinic though he really didn't wear it because for one, it would be too hot over his clothes, and two, they had to be able to get to his lines so they could give him his infusions. We didn't get a lot of pictures with him in the full costume though, so we're going to put him back in it sometime soon and take some more pictures.
Grandma and Grandpa Ramsey are visiting for a couple of weeks and we are all enjoying having them there, especially Logan. He is a HUGE Grandpa's boy, and no one can make him laugh like his Grandma. It's also really nice to have all the help, it takes a lot of the stress off. Currently he is sitting in Grandma's lap playing with a piece of taffy that she got for him. He is really biting the heck out of it right now and I can see chocolate (it's chocolate taffy) all around his mouth. Earlier today I was eating a cookie and he took it from me and stuck it in his mouth, something that he has never done before. In fact, since being released from the hospital he hasn't stuck anything in his mouth. He licked that cookie like there was no tomorrow though and was covered in chocolate by the time he was done with it. At one point I went to go put one of the small pieces into my mouth and he knocked it out of my hands. It was so funny, he really wanted the cookie.
Well, there's not much else to talk about right now. Please everyone, keep praying for Alyssa's family during this hard time, I'm sure they could use all the help they can get. Love you everyone.
NOVEMBER 1, 2008 - Not a whole lot has been going on lately. There have been some changes in his medicine. First is that he is now starting on Hydrocortisone which will be the replacement for his steroids. The bad thing is that the aftertaste is terrible and makes him vomit when taking it alone, so we're working on mixing it with food so the taste isn't too bad. Two weeks from now he'll be off his steroids completely.
They have also decreased his TPN by 25% and also decreased his appetite medicine. They're hoping that with less fluids going in he'll get a bit more hungry and start eating on his own. He's still due to get a feeding tube on Tuesday but at least with the feeding tube he won't have to stay down here. It sounds like they're aiming for the middle of December to come home.
Lab-wise, he's been doing great. He's almost in the normal range for his Platelets and his WBC is staying at a good rate without the help of IV medicines. His WBC has stayed within the normal range for about a week without any help of medicines so all we're waiting on are his Hemoglobins to start keeping up. He had to get a transfusion on Friday. Everything else looks great.
He's still kind of clingy, and still won't sleep in his crib, but we're working on it. for Halloween he was a lion ... I'll try to get pictures up by Monday of them.
