Victory is sweet

Since the tube feeding has started Dale and I have disagreed with it. Ethan has always needed to be held upright for 15-20 minutes after he eats. So, for a pump to be continuously putting food into his stomach, no matter how small of an amount and how much of an incline he is on, it doesn't work for him. I can see how it would work for some, maybe even most, kids but it just doesn't work for Ethan. But it was what the doctor ordered....the tube feeding is the reason that Ethan has thrown up numerous times and has landed back at square 1 (as Dale mentioned in his post).

So, today I made yet another attempt at a plea to stop the tube feed and to let Ethan take a bottle. Thankfully it is the long weekend and we have a different resident and a different surgeon on duty and they said they were willing to give it a try because (in their words) "Mom knows best"....FINALLY a victory for us. By the time I left tonight, Ethan had had 4 bottles (he's getting 5ccs every 3 hours - basically a teaspoon) and no throwing up! He's still so hungry after he gets a tease, but we need to start really slow so his body can handle it, maybe the amount will increase tomorrow...but we also don't want to rush him.

Hopefully the feeds go well throughout the night and then the NG may come out tomorrow. Ethan's tummy had gotten a bit bigger, but that is to be expected with his feeds...they are more concerned that it remains soft and that they can hear normal bowel sounds (both of which are good). It will take time for his body to figure out what to do with food again, so he did have some gas pain today and we asked for an order to be put in for Oval to help and the docs agreed again. So, now Ethan get regular doses of Tylenol (every 4 hours), can have Oval every 6 hours, is getting Clonidine at 9pm to help him sleep at night and can have morphine on an as needed basis (which he hadn't had since early in the morning).

Another thing that happened today was the IV in Ethan's head stopped working, so it was taken out and the antibiotics that he's receiving are being put in through his PICC line. And his fever is totally gone - although we still don't have all of the test results back regarding the source of the infection that his body was fighting.

Thank-you to our company today -- Tanya for coffee & timbits, Mom for the sandwich and to Lucy for babysitting so Dale and I could go out for dinner together!

And lastly, Dale is staying at the hospital with Ethan tonight so I could come home and get a good night's sleep, so I am going to do just that! Goodnight all. Thanks again for reading and for all of your support, we are lucky to have you all in our lives.