Definitely an infection

Infection number....yeah I lost count. She was put on two strong antibiotic meds so it seems to be working and lowering her numbers. She was extubated Friday night and was put back on the low flow canula at 1 liter and she is at 26% oxygen the last I've heard. Last time they had her on 100% and was lowering the liters so I'm thinking they may just try and get her to room air (21%) and go from there. They started her feeds again yesterday at 3PM but she back at 5ccs and will hopefuls move more quickly this time. I fed her a 5cc bottle last night and she is still in the big girl bed. So we just really need her feedings to be up there and her gaining weight from them so she can get off her IV (PICC line) and come home. I'm really hoping they will start upping her feedings more quickly since she was doing good at 15ccs. As you know we did have the baby shower for here I will have pictures at some point. It went well but no one that I invited came : / just one friend of mine one family member (besides my parents and my husbands dad and step mom) and the rest were my moms friends...I was kind of dissapointed. Ah well...can't change it.

Never does it end

Well yesterday was the day of big things. She too two bottles 15ccs, got put in a big girl bed and we were asked if we wanted to be interviewed by The March of Dimes and 22 News. Well I woke up to a missed call...Madison was intubated again. And what's today? Her baby shower...so let's just say we aren't in a good mood. They don't know what's going on, they are taking blood cultures to see if there is a blood infection checking vitals and all that lovely business. Waiting to see if she will Ned a transfusion since her numbers are low, given that information when the lady came in to do a blood gas she took the tube of blood and was done then it fell and blood was everywhere so she had to take more...kind of pissed me off a bit. She doesn't have any to spare really. And to top it all off the camera crew and everyone was coming in and saying oh do you want to move out of the way so the cameras don't get you because "your not the focal point," jee thanks. I would have been if she hadn't gotten sick and trust me with all this shit I've been through you would have had a damn good story.

12 days of infection...

and no change. We just got off the phone with the surgeon and her belly and infections aren't getting any better. From the ultrasounds they can't really see any free fluid so they don't want to risk it with exploratory surgery on her. Based on what they "think" they would rather put a little hole in her belly with a drain to see if anything comes out. They "think" she may have a hole in her intestines which may be causing a build up which is keeping her blood cultures positive and not letting the antibiotics do their job. So we okayed that procedure. They did it and she did well with it. With the drain they did get a lot of discharge and pus which could be a good thing, since really nothing is supposed to be in there. That could be the source of her infections. They switched antibiotics and are hoping she will start getting negative blood cultures since they were able to drain some stuff. Her belly did go down 1cm afterwards which is good. They called us early today as ask permission to bring Madison to the OR to try and get a more permanent IV placed because all of her other IVs that have been placed have blown or just aren't good and don't last very long. I was hoping she got her Daddy's veins, but she got mine instead. So we agreed to that after the risks were told...possible punctured lung...blood cut off from her arm but she needs a way to get the meds she needs. After a couple hours they called back and said we we want something more temporary because her blood culture is still positive and we don't want to keep housing the bacteria in the line because then we would be going in circles, which is true...I'd rather if possible her culture be negative before anything more permanent is introduced into her blood. So that is where we stand.

Possible exploratory surgery...

I can't remember if I posted about how Madison's tummy is extended and they found a possible fungal ball or cyst by her liver BUT her blood culture has been positive for 2 different bacterial infections and she's been on the best antibiotics for it and there hasn't been a change. On top of that she hasn't pooped in over a week so if something doesn't happen by Monday they are thinking about doing exploratory surgery to see if they can find something they could fix. They think it could be a bowel infection. The positive for today she is still stable and pooped on her own *yay* So hopefully things will be looking up now. Meanwhile they are waiting on results from her belly scan earlier to see if things have changed and are looking into maybe a different antibiotic that could help. I did decide today after 3 weeks of trying, that this breast feeding well pumping thing just wasn't working out for me. I have about 70 bottles at the hospital with my drops in them and that should hold her off for a little since she isn't getting any feeds now and when she does they will be extremely tiny so they would work out for her in the beginning. I just can't do it and I do feel bad for giving up but its so stressful for me. I would have to run home every two hours to get nothing in return for my time and effort. I feel like it would be a different story like I said before having the baby with me. So next pregnancy (that will be fullterm) I will try again and hope for a different outcome.

The hurricane, Incision, Hospital & Madison

Well I woke up this morning to pee as usual still having a hard time getting out of bed but that is usual now. I didn't take any pain meds and it was well over the 6 hours. Anyway I went to the bathroom pulled down those horrid face hospital underwear removed the pad that covered my incision and well it wasn't pretty it had a lot more stuff on it in an area I thought was good. So I peed stood up put a new pad over it and suddenly I felt a warm sensation and some salmonish discharge came pouring out onto the floor so I immediately put more pressure on it and was kind of in a freak out mode. Woke up my husband told him what happen and of course he's like oh its probably nothing (because he's freaking out about going out in the hurricane, tropical storm whatever it is) but it was serious enough for me. He's the one who had to clean up the mess on the floor. So we call the on call doctor again he says you can come in or wait like he did yesterday so today I felt I couldn't wait until Monday. So we go in (they said we were expecting you) ha yeah. So I go in get changed into the johnny and the nurse looks at it and says oh you do have a lot going on there so I'm like yeah its gross. I can't really see the incision myself so I have to rely on others. So the doctor comes in and looks at it and agrees with what the nurse says. She takes some q tips and checks the incision so see what parts look good and where the draining is coming from. She says some parts need to be packed in order to heal. So where there was a lot of drainage she kind of clears it with a q tip and it hurts so bad and this is coming from someone with an oddly high pain tolerance. She says she sees some redness and there is obviously pain there so she packs that first and that's when the tears start flooding it was terrible. The other ones I didn't notice but man that was bad. So she sends me home with a different pain med and antibiotics to take for 2 weeks and some hospital dressing which im sure work a hell. Of a lot better than the pads to cover it. So after that we figure since we are at the hospital already we would go up to the NICU to see our Madison. They ended up taking the little tent off her in the incubator now she is just in the incubator no extra coverings. The nurse did say she had a bad morning but she is stable now and has started her second round of meds to get rid of that murmur. She looked fine I hate how they put in the breathing tube with my babies mouth all stretched...ah well. It is day number 9 Madison has been NICU bound and counting.