Sleepy Boy

I had a long talk with Cohen's attending Dr this morning. Usually they send the residents in to chat but they answer a lot of my questions with "I'll have to talk to someone with more experience in that area"...ok fine, just get me that Dr in the first place! No, really, they are usually all very kind but it gets old to get a new resident every 2 weeks and I know they are learning. But, after you've been stuck in the hospital for a long time it just wears me out.

Anyway, Cohen had another good blood gas this morning but they decided not to wean him. As I've mentioned before, because of his heart they really just want to take it slow. The point where he is at now with his heart and lungs the Dr said she has seen babies go either way. Sometimes if they get pushed too fast it can get their heart in trouble which can make them really sick. She has also seen babies who get pushed and do fine. They just don't want to take any chances at this point. He will probably get another echo in a few weeks rather than his one a month that he usually gets.

 {No pants Monday}

Cohen gets another blood gas on Thursday and if it's good then they will probably wean him. If his blood gas is good, they may also change his feedings to bolus feeds. So instead of having it on the pump to go in over an hour, they will just put it in the syringe to gravity which usually takes about half an hour. They will see how he responds to this -- whether his respiratory rate goes up, or he gets reflux, or needs higher amounts of oxygen. He will be watched for those things to see if the bolus feeds are too much work for him or if he tolerates it okay. If they switch him to bolus feeds he will probably also be changed to continuous drip feeds at night. So instead of getting a big amount of food all at once he will get it continually like he used to. This will let him rest at night and hopefully get some good sleep without waking up to be hungry and then digesting a big bolus of food.

In other news, I think I am going to go back to work next week! I know, seems kinda crazy. Some of you know this, but I work at a surgery center as a pre and post op nurse. I was working full time but recently quit and am now per diem which means I get to say days that I am available and then if they need me those days I work. Since Cohen is going to be in the hospital a few more weeks I am going to work maybe 1 or 2 days next week just to kind of get back in to some kind of "normal" activity in my life. I have gone back and forth about this decision quite a bit. Obviously it will be hard since Cohen is still in the hospital, but also when he first comes home I probably won't be able to (or want to!) leave him for awhile. So I feel like now is actually a good time to kind of get my feet wet again in that area. There has been hardly anything normal about the last 4 months of my life and I feel like this is something that will help me kind of keep moving forward. It's something that I can control and it kind of puts me back into the real world.

 {Caught in the act}

Thank you to everyone who offered to help clean...I am trying to figure out which day(s) work best for people. I am still accepting help if anyone wants to! :)