a holiday - what's that?

When we were still in the NICU, I said I don't want to spend another holiday in the hospital.  Maybe I should have clarified that meant "any and all hospitals".  We have spent Easter, Mother's Day, Father's Day, July 4th, and now it looks like Labor Day in the hospital.  Hopefully, we won't have to spend Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas there too.


On Wednesday, I came home from the studio and noticed that Camdyn was looking a little pale.  After a little time passed, I noticed that her lips were looking bluish-purple too.  I called the pediatrician and they told me to rub her feet and try to get her to cry.  After a few attempts, she was still not responding.  I decided then to take her in to the pediatrician.  Kathy drove and I sat in the back with Camdyn.  I called the pediatrician again and he told me to get there fast.  We put on the emergency flashers and tried the best we could to get there fast in the middle of traffic.  I carried my little limp baby into the doctor's office, and they put her on oxygen right away.  I was scared to death.  They put her on a pulse ox, and I saw that she was satting in the 60s.  I knew too much from being in the NICU so long.  I knew that was not good and just began crying and telling her how much I loved her.  The pediatrician had the nurse call 911 and an ambulance came to pick her up from the doctor's office and take her to Dell Children's hospital.  In the ambulance, they put her on oxygen and a pulse ox.  By this point, she was satting 100 (perfect), so I was able to breathe again. 


When we got to the ER (around 5 PM), our pediatrician, Dr. Cohen, was already there waiting for us.  I thought that was so amazing.  He did not have to go to the ER to be with us, but he did, and he beat the ambulance there.  That is a doctor who really cares!  In the ER, they did a ton of tests and put in an IV.  She had a blood gas done and it looked good.  They were worried that it would show she had not been getting enough oxygen since she had been pale for a while.  That was good news.  She then had a blood analysis and urine analysis which both turned out fine.  Then they took her to have two chest x-rays and one abdominal x-ray (all fine).  They even said that her lungs looked good for a 24 weeker who had been diagnosed with chronic lung disease.  That was good news.  Next she had a lumbar puncture to rule out meningitis.   That came back good too.  She then had an EKG which also turned out normal.  So, they had no answers as to what caused it, but they wanted to keep us to watch her overnight.


It has now been 3 nights later, and she is still there.  They did another EKG and an echo cardiogram which again turned out normal.  She was on 1/2 liter oxygen and then moved down to 1/4 and then 1/8 liters which is practically nothing.  She has now been off of the oxygen but has occassional desaturations.  They are watching her longer to see if she may need to come home with oxygen just when she is sleeping.  I really hope she doesn't need this, but I definitely want her to be getting enough oxygen when she sleeps.  So, we will see what the pulmonologist says tomorrow.  Before the babies were born, I didn't even know that all of these "ologists" existed.  They have seen neo-natologists, opthamologists, cardiologists, pulmonologists, otolaryngologists, etc., etc., etc.


So after a lumbar puncture, 2 chest x-rays, 1 abdominal x-ray, 2 EKGs, an echo cardiogram, blood analysis, urine analysis, and viral cultures, they still don't know what caused her to turn pale and desat.  It may have been congestion or a common cold.  That's a lot of tests for a common cold.  I am glad that they did the whole work up though, and we are lucky that all she really needed was a little oxygen.  When a full-term baby gets a little virus, they require a lot of sleep; when a micro-preemie gets a little virus, they require an extended hospital stay.  What fun!


We hope to know what the plan is tomorrow.  If she does need oxygen support at home, we have to wait to be discharged until a week day because home health care doesn't work on the weekends and they are the ones who set up the equipment.  And Monday is a holiday for the rest of the world, so we may not get to bring her back home until Tuesday.  So, we just may be spending yet another holiday in the hospital.


Some of you have asked about when you can meet the babies.  As you can see, we have to take extra precautions with our babies.  I wish I could show them off to the world.  They are absolutely adorable and just melt your heart.  Unfortunately, we have to be pretty isolated.  We take all kinds of precautions to protect them and yet this still happened.  They don't go anywhere except to their doctor's appointments.  I bought these super cute car seat covers.  I knew it was kind of silly since they really don't go anywhere, but I just thought they were so cute.  I guess Camdyn thought hers was cute too because she wanted to show it off to the EMTs on her ambulance ride and to the staff at the ER.  We can't wait until they are bigger and stronger and we are able to introduce them to our whole family and all of our friends.  Until then, I will keep posting pictures.  Sorry about no pics on this post.  I've been pretty busy to say the least!


God, we are thankful that Camdyn does not have any diseases or defects.  We pray for her to get stronger and to be able to breathe all on her own without the need for oxygen.  We pray that you keep Cade, Brenna, and the rest of us healthy.  Amen.