Time flies

It's hard to believe that one month ago at this moment the 3 of us were waiting in a room in the Children's Hospital Emergency for a room on CK3 to be cleaned so Ethan could be admitted, which happened around midnight. That evening on the way to the hospital Dale and I agreed that we were not leaving until Ethan was "fixed" and we prepared ourselves for the inevitable --- being admitted.

I don't think either of us thought we'd be there for this long, but it will all be worth it when Ethan can live a healthy, happy, normal life.

Dale had a good night with Ethan last night and he is staying over at the hospital again tonight. This morning the docs decided to increase Ethan's feeds, they said we could give him 7 - 10 CCs (or MLs)...we decided to stick with 7CCs for the day and he did quite well with that. He did gag a couple of times throughout the day, but never threw up...and we're thinking the gagging was due to still having the NG tube in. If all goes well tonight the NG tube should come out tomorrow! and then all that will be left is the PICC line in his groin.

Can't remember if I mentioned this before, but Ethan was in isolation for a few days when he had the fever. The nurses and doctors had to wear gowns, masks and gloves whenever they would come in to the room. The majority of the tests have come back negative, we're just waiting on the blood test results, so we are no longer in isolation.

Because Ethan has been on TPN for a few weeks now he has gotten to the point where they are concentrating the mixture so he still gets the same number of calories, but then gets a 2 - 4 hour break from it, to give his liver a rest. TPN and lipids are great because they provide nutrition without having to eat/digest, but it needs to go through his veins and be processed by the liver, which can be very hard on it. Some kids who have to be on it long term (many months/years) end up needing liver transplants! Amazing and scary stuff.

Earlier today Dale went home to clean up and pack a few things for tonight. During the break from TPN, while Ethan was finally free from being connected to any machines, Grandma Elise happened to be visiting and we were able to take Ethan in a carriage and go for a walk! The last time we did that the ground was covered in ice & snow! Ethan seemed to really enjoy the short jaunt outside when we went from Children's to the General Hospital...he closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths to soak it in. We meandered all over, peeked in to Ronald McDonald House and went to the cafeteria to get a coffee. When we walked through the main entrance of HSC there was a woman in a black and white coat in front of us and I had a strange feeling about her - not bad, just kind of drawn to her. As we got close enough to be beside her she asked how old Ethan was, I told her 3 and a half months, she somehow knew he was a preemie, talked about how bright and alert he was and then said, "He's doing well." It was such a bold statement coming from someone I had never met....and yet, I knew she was right. Then she told us that her brother was a preemie, he was about 2lbs and now he's 6'1".

All in all, today was a good day.