Friday, August 22, 2008

He is being discharged today. Finally, we will have him home with us. This stay is being chalked up as his bad lungs. He will outgrow his chronic lung disease, but we have to practice patience until then. We pray that Hunter grows stronger everyday. We pray that his lungs are healing and growing. It has been so hard not having him home. I can't wait for his discharge.

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Today has been filled with disappointment and confusion. Hunter was supposed to be discharged today. According to Hunter's chart, it says that his oxygen requirements were turned up to .30 and fluctuated between .30 and .25 yesterday. This confuses me because I sat here all day and not one time did a nurse have to turn it up. Because his chart says that his requirements have fluctuated, the doctor is keeping him here another day. I am a little confused how it fluctuated and was never turned up..I guess the doctors have to go by what his chart says.

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

The doctors have ruled out pneumonia. His hospital stay his due to his chronic lung disease and complications associated with that. We were really hoping to bring him home today. They have discontinued the Lasik’s, steroids, and breathing treatments. He is sitting nicely at .25 liter again. We found out that he was not coming home today, possibly tomorrow.

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Hunter was admitted into the hospital early this morning. We spent all night in Emergency. Hunter was wheezing. I called my Pediatrician's office who advised me to bring him in. After monitoring him in the ER, they decided it would be in his best interest to admit him.

After they admitted him, the doctor ordered a chest x-ray. They noticed that his lungs were "wet". This means that he had extra fluid on his lungs. They are going to keep him, start Lasik’s to remove the fluid, steroids, and breathing treatments.
Hunter's oxygen requirements went from .25 liters to 1 liter. They will be trying to wean him down over the next couple days.

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Hunter has been doing well since his discharge. We have taken the time we need to spend time (spoil) with him. We have really come together and enjoyed this time.
I don't have too much to write about. Hunter has a nice nurse that comes to see him every week. She weighed him today. He is 7 pounds 12 1/2 ounces. His discharge weight was 6 pounds 5 ounces, so he has really gained the weight here at home.
Hunter is still being fed by bottle and through his feeding tube. His lungs give him difficulty taking every bottle. The doctors say the premature lungs and feeding issues go together. So, when he comes off oxygen, he should be coming off the feeding tube.


We went to his lung specialist the other day. They had us turn off Hunter's oxygen for 10 minutes. Their objective: to see how long it takes for Hunter's oxygen levels to drop without the oxygen. After 10 minutes, Hunter's oxygen saturation was in the mid 70's. In a perfect world, it should have remained between 96-100%. He is not ready to come off oxygen yet. They passed on scheduling his sleep study this month. He is not ready. We have another appointment in September.


We are continuing to enjoy that Hunter is home with us. We continue to spoil him. He is not sleeping in his crib yet. I think he needs to feel close to us. We have him sleeping in a pack and play next to our bed. We are trying to get him over to his crib. It is a work in progress.