Kinsley update, and Preston comes to stay

The RTU is desighned only for short stays of observation. They like to keep it under 24 hours, but can keep you as long as 48. When it was clear we were not going to be able to go home the doctor admitted Kinsley to the Infant Med/Surg floor. Can I just say, I LOVE our attending doctor. She is wonderful. We really are lucky because she is the head infant doctor in the hospital. We mostly see her residents and medical students, but they are all on her team. We have also seem the ENT. Here is where it gets difficult. I understand how so much of medicine is based on the opinion of the doctor. Here with the team approach there are several conflicting opinions. The ENT (who is not my favorite person) put Kinsley on some acid reflux in order to keep the acid from iritating her airway further. The attending stopped that after two days, then reinstated it when the ENT pushed for it. The attending wants Kinsley scoped yesterday to make sure there are not other problems that are not going to get better. The ENT is refusing to scope for another 4 days. The nurse thought Kinsley could use some oxygen to help her relax and not work so hard, called someone and got the order. Then she put on a nasal cannula and started oxygen. Not ten minutes later the resident doc came in and said "take the oxygen off, that is not a good idea.". However, all in all we are having a good experience.

Yesterday in the early hours of the morning Kinsley was really struggling. The nurse ended up calling the docs in twice before they gave her a dose of racemic epinephrine. It was scary and I would not have wanted to be home during her extremely labored breathing. Then when the doctors did the rounds again this morning the attending said if that happened again she would be more comfortable with Kinsley in the pediatric ICU or PICU. This news did not make me happy. Then I got more news. Jared was on his way to the ER with Preston, who was having difficulty breathing, and had had a terrible night of retractions and labored breathing. We had a couple hiccups, but the ER gave Preston some racemic epinephrine and admitted him to our room.

So now I have two babies in the room with me. After the treatment Preston has been doing great. He is still really loud when he is breathing, especially when he is asleep, but he is having very slight retractions if any, and doesn't seem to be struggling. Also he had kind of quit eating and he is back to eating. In fact today he wanted two full feeds only 2 hours apart. He normally takes them 4 hours apart. Kinsley is also doing fantastic.

After Preston was admitted Kinsley started to get really worked up. They called the doc and ordered the racemic epinefrin, but by the time they had it all ready Kinsley had finally calmed down and was breathing pretty well. It wasn't great, but it was under control. I got her to sleep and Preston to sleep and I took a nap. We all slept really well. When Kinsley woke up she was not laboring to breath almost at all. Her strider is lower pitched, which means some of the swelling has gone down. She is doing so well I'm becoming cautiously optimistic that she might be discharged tomorrow. She did get a little worked up and was struggling again, but we were able to control it with cool mist, and she is sleeping peacefully once more.

I also couldn't help it, and put the babies into the same crib. There are lots of wires to get tangled in, but the babies seem to enjoy the closeness. I'm sure it must be lonely for them to be here when they are used to so many others.


It is now 11 pm

We had a little breathing issue with Kinsley. She couldn't relax and was struggling hard to breath so we gave her the racemic epinefrin again. It worked wonders within ten min she was as quiet as she could be. But they won't release her until she can go at least 24 hours without needing it. Also her little fit woke Preston and now he isn't interested in sleeping. I hope we can get better soon. Tomorrow was supposed to be the 6 month wellness check up. I guess we won't make it. :)

Keep praying for us, I know it is helping.