Delays

Well today did not go quite as planned. April and I both got a decent nights rest and headed off to Madison this morning. I did not grab the laptop on the way out or any reading materials because I figured the day would be busy with last minute discussions with the doctors about Owen's care and his test results. Little did I know they would have come in handy since we were going to be trapped at the hospital for a few more days.

We did not want to possibly miss out on the doctors talks about Owen and their thoughts on his progress, so I had April call the hospital on our way there to let them know we were in transit. When she called, they transferred her through to Babbles who told her that Owen was running a low grade fever and would not be able to be discharged today. She also said he would need more blood drawn. She said they wanted to check for infection and that he would need to have the IV that he had finally had removed yesterday replaced. What a major setback!

Disappointed yet enthusiastic to see Owen, we made our way up to his room to find that they had his new IV all set up....in his head! He really did not seem to notice or care that he had an IV in his head...but it bothered me. They even had to shave a little piece of his almost non-existent head of hair to be able to stick the IV. They taped the piece of shaved hair to his name card on the bed. He was sleeping when we got there. The doctors had not drawn his blood but there were no results yet. They also wanted to run a spinal tap which scared me because they told me a week ago that doing this could be catastrophic for his health. They assured us that now that he was a week old the procedure was very low risk and was necessary to rule out any infection and so that if there were an issue, it could be treated before it hindered his progress. We did not want to be a part of his discomfort, so we left the room while the procedure was performed.

Besides the fact that Owen had more blood drawn and the spinal tap....he was in a great mood all afternoon. He was extremely alert and playful and followed you with his eyes no matter where you were. He was eating well and resting much more comfortably. He did not have that irritated whine he was making yesterday while he napped. During his down time, April and I watched a video on child CPR and how to help a child if they were choking.

Eventually blood test results started coming back in and they were good. No infections, bad readings or cause for alarm. We did not get the spinal tap results back as of the time we headed home. A physical therapist came in and checked Owen's movements and progress and he has met all of his one week milestones. His tone is right on track for a child of his age. She was very pleased with how alert he was. Owen had an ultrasound this morning and once again they do not suspect any active bleeding. They said his ventricles that are full of blood have swollen...but they anticipated a certain amount of swelling and were not alarmed by anything they had seen. One of his doctors said that unless infection began to show in some of the cultures that needed to sit for 48 hours, they anticipated releasing Owen from the hospital on Sunday. So we are going to remain hopeful. They have been administering antibiotics to him through the IV on his head....but he only needs to be hooked to an actual cord while the medicine goes in (which takes about 30 minutes). Otherwise he is not actually attached to anything.

We also found that once Owen is released from the NICU....we will have quite a few appointments to attend in order to monitor his progress. We will have an appt. with the doctor in Reedsburg the day after he is released and multiple appointments with doctors in Madison to check him and make sure he is well. But it will be worth the trips just to be able to attempt some normalcy outside of a constant medical environment.

Brendan was shocked to see an extra bed set up in our room for Owen. I don't think he quite understands his little brother will be joining us soon outside of the hospital walls. As always, Brendan continues to be a consistent source of stress relief as we now continue the wait for Owen's release. We took his to Olive Garden tonight on the way home from the hospital and we was stalking a little boy for his Handy Manny tool box the child was trying to play with. He was very persistent in trying to get this tool box from the little boy and the kid was trying very hard to out maneuver Brendan's advances. It should not come as a surprise that as soon as we were done eating, I headed over to Target and bought him the tool box he wanted so bad. Sure, we do not have the funds to be wasting....especially right now....but our eldest little man has been such a tremendous individual even through all of this running around, he deserved it. We spent the remainder of the evening loading and unloading the tools from the box. I was also reminded tonight that Brendan and some of April's family had gone out to pizza the other night and he was very offended by the "bugs" that were on his pizza. He would not eat the pieces with the "bugs" on them. Those bugs were olives. He never fails to amuse me.

So tomorrow we will head back off to the hospital with Brendan in tow and hope for the best. If all goes well....we should only need to make the trip back and forth to Madison one more time and Owen will be coming home to join his big brother and their menagerie of pets in his own house. We'll remain optimistic.