Better day

The key to living in the hospital is really one big things- Nurses.

Seriously. Bad nurses make for bad days and good nurses make for good ones.

Fortunately we had a great nurse last night and another great one today.

Last night his heart rate was doing the same crazy stuff. Low and irregular. I was frustrated. How can they keep telling me that it's normal when I know it's not?

I brought it up to the night nurse and she actually listened. Instead of hitting a button on the machine to shut it up, she got the stethoscope out and listened. sure enough- she could hear the irregularity. She went straight to the resident pediatrician.

The pedi's thoughts were that it could actually be from the NG tube. It can stimulate the Vagus nerve and cause weird heart stuff. It made sense to me because it used to happen back in the NICU.

Good Night nurse seemed like she was a little relieved but also wanted confirmation. I took the hint and suggested that maybe we might want to do something to confirm that. She said she'd be sure to pass along to the day nurse that perhaps we could get an EKG. THANK YOU.

Later in the night I rolled him to his other side and his heart rate improved. She commented that it would make sense that if it is the tube moving him would help, it's probably moved off of the nerve.

This morning, we had another good nurse. Very attentive. I like that.

Then the NP rounded on him. (I so much prefer her to Dr. GI.) and I mentioned the thing again and before I could even say "maybe we could get an EKG" she said "I'll go ahead and order an EKG." SCORE!

In the meantime, he's been eating better. Not great- but better. With the exception of one bad feeding this morning, he's taken between 50 and 62ml every feeding. (When we were admitted, I was struggling to reliably get more than 15 or 20ml into him.)

GI NP was "encouraged" and said he was "doing better than they expected."

We also got a visit from my favorite respiratory therapist from the NICU. She was present at Robbie's birth and always had a soft spot for him.

It was also therapy dog visit day. I managed to miss him because I was in the shower. I heard Robbie giggling and tried to get my clothes on to get out to see him but I missed it. David said the dog tickled Robbie's foot with his ear and Robbie thought it was hysterical. I'm so bummed I missed it, but glad that Robbie got something out of it.

All in all, it's been a goodish day.

Of course, during the time I was typing this, Robbie just ripped his NG tube out (despite the fact that good day nurse JUST retaped it an hour ago. GRRRRRRRRR) so we'll see what happens. She's not going to put a new one in yet. She's going to talk to the doctor and see if she wants to try to get by w/o it. I sort of doubt that, but we'll see.

Anyway, please keep praying. If the improvement continues, he may actually manage to get buy w/o surgery.

--Trish

P.S. The results of the EKG aren't in yet. Will let everyone know when I know.