Admitted

  Yes, we were back in the hospital.  I had a feeling all the spitting up and throwing up was most likely going to land us back there.  Sure enough Thursday morning Lucy was definitely not herself.  After a morning spit up, she cried hysterically and holding her in her favorite upright position wasn't helping.  I stopped her feeds and my aunt was here to hold her and try to comfort her until  our appointment later that day.  Lucy was finally able to fall asleep and we started her feeds back, mixing breast milk with pedialite but decreasing her volume to 18 ML per hour.  We wanted to keep her hydrated but not upset her stomach (her feeds are usually at 24 ML per hour).  Well that didn't work because about a half hour after starting the feeds she threw up again.  At this point her face was starting to look puffy as well.  At about 11 am, I called the nurse and she said there is no point to wait for the appointment.  So we packed up and about half hour later we were on the road.

We arrived at the hospital and they sent us for labs and an x-ray.  Luckily they didn't need to place an IV to draw blood.  Instead they pricked her heel and squeezed to get the blood.  She didn't really like that either, but it beats an IV.  We didn't even get in the back room for our echo when Dr. Husayni came out to the waiting room.  I knew we weren't going home.  Turns out the x-ray showed fluid around her lungs that was causing pressure.  Add to it her 'new flow' pattern of blood directly to her lungs and it can bring on severe discomfort along with throwing up.  Dr. Husayni said they could send us home on some extra diuretics, but being so close to surgery they preferred to observe with the hopes that the fluid would clear up on the mornings x-ray and we could be discharged.  The good news is the medication was oral, so this was the first admit without being poked (I'm not counting the heal prick, that was nothing).  Unfortunately Friday morning's x-ray although better was not clear enough for discharge so night number two.  On the plus side, Lucy's demeanor Friday and Saturday was a complete one eighty. We saw lots of smiling, talking and playing with her rings.  Saturday evening we were discharged to close out our third hospital visit in less than six months.  Yikes, hard to believe she will be six months next week.

 

As of now we are working on getting her back to normal, then we can work on getting all that junk off her face.....hopefully in the weeks to come we can do an oxygen test.  Her saturation's have been regularly in the mid to low 80's.  We are sure Lucy will be oxygen free in no time!  Then we will slowly start to work on bottle feeding again.

 

 

We can't thank you all enough for following our journey and praying for us.  I'd like to request prayers for a family we met while we were in the hospital.  Their three year old daughter has HLHS and was in the hospital due to declining heart function.  The doctor's determined that medication would not be enough and she is in need of a transplant.  Please pray that a heart become available for this family and for the family that decides to donate the heart!