Saturday, December 20, 2008

Back in Atlanta -- Day 3

I am back in Atlanta (as of yesterday afternoon) and I must say the drive here this time wasn't nearly as speed laden as the first time. My mom, livia, family friend, AJ, and I got ourselves into the Mason Guest house last night after a very fun yogurt explosion accident. Please do not ask.

I was here when Ian had a bowel movement the first time on Friday afternoon which was great. He is doing well--his labs are showing steady improvement but a little slower than we had hoped. The doctors are monitoring things very closely and are positive by the trending that Ian is showing.

This morning I shifted out with Brett as he had two hours of sleep--I think I got about 3 between feeding livy, worrying about Ian, and the size and "comfort" of my pull out chair that was my bed. While I was here Ian had his catheder (sp?) removed and one of his arterial blood pressure IV lines removed which is great. Taking the tape off him is not fun for Ian at all. He had tape on one of his wrist IVs fail and bled on his ball blanket so I am trying to find a place to wash that for him. When he has tubes/lines/tape removed, I try to distract him as much as possible by playing our engine guessing game, singing songs or other things. Ian keeps asking to go potty in the big potty but that is just not possible right now. We think he may be able to have clear liquids tonight.

I thought I was prepared for the transplant call but no so at all. In three years, I've kept our bags with my sister who lives in metro ATL. Just two weeks ago when we were here for clinic, I decided to take them back to SC to repack/reassess and didn't get to do that yet. Thank goodness I hadn't unpacked anything so could just put them right into the trunk but they hadn't been updated for over a year. Brett and I are having to "live" apart right now and that is one of the kinks in the plan as I had thought we would be together and we are not. The other major kink is that Livia cannot come back to Ian's PICU room so I am having to go back and forth between Ian's PICU room and a family waiting area to feed Livy or from his PICU room to a transplant housing facility about 2 miles away to feed Livy. It is rough--very very rough. As I said on an earlier post, it would be such a stress relief if Livy were to take a bottle as I can pump milk for her where ever and my mom who is here helping me (THANK YOU MOM!) can feed her from the bottle. We are trying a new type of bottle for her later today.

Brett and I have different hurdles with our "divide and conquer" jobs and who has the bigger hurdles--I don't know. He has been amazing and wonderful and awesome and I am so glad we are doing this together and that we can bear our burdens together to make them light.

Please keep the prayers coming!

4 comments:

Richard said...

We love you and keep fighting through.

Jaime said...

Divide and conquest is never as great as the theory says it should be. Sorry about all the extra little hassles. For several months my new phrase has been,"Rainbows and Unicorns, rainbows and unicorns." Basically, as hard as it might be, try to focus on the positive, even if it seems "imaginary". Lots of love from VA-

Unknown said...

This is the number for the Atlanta Area Hotline for the La Leche league of Atlanta, GA (404) 681-6342. One of my most trusted professors, who is also an expert in child development said that this is the best place to go to help your daughter take a bottle.
Much Love-
Crystal :)

Amy said...

You can do it, Elaine! Sending you love and prayers.