Davids Wild Ride

It occurred to me last night about 2ish when I couldn't take my eyes off of David long enough to sleep, that almost every hospital stay since Davids birth has been nothing but one big roller coaster ride. He does bad, he does better, he does really bad and then by the grace of God......he always evens out and then steps off the coaster......no worse for the wear. It is a truly wild ride of EMS rides, frantic car rides, hospital staff, Mom hospital staff arguments, monitors, needle sticks, prayers, hyperventilation and then blessedly.......relief. When he was in the NICU....it was 5 long months of this ride with no positive end in sight. Once it did end positively, I told myself I never wanted to go through anything like that again. However...my plans and Gods don't always coincide and we have had more of these rides than I like to think about. This being the latest and in two hospitals, states and stages to boot! So last night, I decided that there is a lesson in all of this that possibly God has been trying to get through my thick skull all this time!

After a night with another temperature spike and the onset of more congestion, this morning is quite different. I spent a good part of last night forcing David to blow bubbles, and blow to make a pinwheel spin. Apparently all the forcing paid off as this morning his lungs are much clearer. He is also temp free and watching Nickelodeon with great pleasure and noise. He is full of smiles, "yee haws," and "wheredyago's." It is truly a beautiful sight.

Yesterday David seemed to be trending down a bit and I was so relieved to find that there was neither an infection in his shunt, nor was it clogged. Either would have indicated another surgery immediately and I was not prepared for that. David's body has been through enough in this last week. Then we found that his hematocrit numbers (amount of blood in the body) were dropping. Normal is 12-14. His was 9.7 when he came into the ER and yesterday it was down to 8. I was a little irritated that I had to bring up the hematocrit to them but they were ruling everything else out and he was still so pale that he was almost clear and he was very lathargic. When I asked if it could be related to blood loss the nurse jumped right on it and then the resident on the floor decided to follow suit. That is when we realized the drop. Blood loss can be from a lot of things....especially after surgery. It can be from incision bleeding (which his were not), it can be from some internal bleeding such as stomach irritation from the high amounts of ibuprofen he was receiving or as in what we found to be his case.....it was actually from the blood they gave him during surgery. When you receive blood, your own body temporarily quits making it's own as it uses up the new blood. There can be a drop in count after the fact until your body kicks in and starts making its own again. By mid day his body seemed to be kicking in and the numbers continued to increase throughout the rest of the day. As the numbers increased, so did the color in his face and his activity level. It was a sigh of relief for all of us.

Today after talking to the docs, unless David decides to take us on another wild ride.....we should be going home tomorrow. They are now just waiting for his original blood cultures to come back clear. That should be sometime late tonight. So as I said.....providing we have no more surprises....our friendly EMS should be picking him up and delivering him home tomorrow! Yay!

For those of you who have been on me about sleep....you will be glad to know that after about 3 a.m. this morning, I slept like a baby. In fact I slept so well that other than a couple of momentary checks on David....David and I slept until 9:30 a.m. today. This staff is so funny. Both doctors and nurses have tiptoed around when I am sleeping so as not to wake me. The doc apparently came in at 7 but instructed no one to wake me. He said he would come back when I was awake.....and he did. So funny and very unhospital like!

So back to the lesson I have learned. I think the resounding info that I am suppose to be taking to heart through all of this is..........quit planning. Planning only makes me look ahead to things I really can't control and this invariably gets me in trouble as my plans are seldom in sync with Gods. Instead I need to live in the moment and not think beyond the 24 hours that I am currently in. My plans for this surgery and going home were far different than the reality has been. I am sure there have been reasons unbeknownst to me as to why things are as they are....and I am very grateful that we got David into the hospital before this cold hit. Tomorrow for the ride home it is suppose to be in the 40's.....so I guess it is all the way it is suppose to be.

Today I am a bit more rested, David is a lot more active, happy and healthy and it looks as if we are about to depart Davids Wild Ride once again. Please stay warm and safe during all of this cold.....and as always.....thanks for reading!