My boys being cute!

A Jazmin Update

Jazmin has been home since Monday afternoon. She's most definitely glad to be here, with her brothers, her toys, her puppies, etc! Until today, she hadn't shown any ability to be off her vent for any length of time. Prior to her sickness/hospitalization she was only on her vent from about 9p-7a the rest of the time she was on a "nose" (a small barrel shaped filter that keeps debris from getting into her trach, and is supposed to warm the air up). Today Amy and I did a trial run to see how she would respond to a few minutes on her nose. We did have to turn up her oxygen to 1.5 liters, but after a couple hours we were able to turn it back down to .5 liters! That's right I said HOURS! The kiddo was amazing. She was so ready to be off her vent and move around freely and...yes get into trouble. She went down for nap on her vent, but upon waking spent the rest of the evening off her vent, and is now asleep on her vent without any oxygen at all!! Talk about a resilient kid! I hope she can continue at this rate of healing and get back to her old self again...troublemaker and all.

A busy homecoming!!

This morning the boys, Amy and I all made the trek to the PICU for hopefully the last time. We grabbed Jazmin and ran! Just kidding, we loaded up all her gear, and headed home. It was a super crazy day, on top of the discharge from the hospital (with boys in tow) we also had a new nurse orientating to work with Jazmin. Thankfully she seems to have a good base of nursing skills so it is more like training her to Jaz's habits, routine etc. When we got home, we discovered naughty Duchess had been into a garbage can, eaten a novel (just finished reading lucky for her) shredded a potty diaper and numerous other things she found in the garbage can. GRRRRR can somebody please tell her it's not time for spring fever yet! Anyway, it's 9:30 and I still have a ton of things to get done before bedtime and the next nurse arrives. Thanks for every one's well wishes and phone calls to check in. I'm sorry I didn't have more time to talk, but hopefully in the next few days things will slow down and I'll have a better chance to catch up with things/people. Also, thanks to Tanya who brought supper tonight...she saved us from leftovers!

Cute things Ryan said lately

While walking behind me last night he saw the steam of my breath coming from my mouth. He asked "Mommy, why is the gas coming from your head?".

Tonight at supper, Joel and I were planning a few meals for the week. Joel said he had cheesy onion soup in his head. Ryan stood up, looked at Joel's head and said "that's silly daddy, soup in your head".

While snuggling in for the night, Joel was messing with Ryan. I said "Don't get him all riled up Joel" and Ryan said "yeah, don't get me all riled up Joel".

Kids say the darnedest things.

Day #8 in the PICU

Today Jazmin had no fevers, ate three good meals, and maintained adequate hydration via her sippy cup! She was up to some of her old tricks...dropping her sippy on the floor, popping off her vent, making faces at everyone who walked past her room...all signs that the old Jazmin is re-appearing.
Her pulmonologist has agreed to let her come home tomorrow YEAH! (baring any unforeseen circumstances) Looks like she did herself a little favor getting her IV out a day early. So bright and early tomorrow morning the boys and I along with her nurse Amy will make the trek back to the hospital and get her home. Tomorrow is a big day so wish us luck!

Day #7 in the PICU

Jazmin is starting to perk up. She's getting closer to being on her "healthy" sleep schedule, she's still taking a short nap in the am, but at least she's not sleeping all day and night anymore. Smiles are getting to be a common reaction (finally) and we've even had her laughing!
The blood test for her level of infection (CRP) has come considerably down. This number should be between 0.05-o.4 hers has been over 13! Today it was down to 8.95, so that's a jump in the right direction. Her chest x-rays are still pretty yucky, but are moving in the right direction as well. This evening after I left, her IV came out. They were unable to obtain a new site so they switched her over to oral antibiotics a day early. There was some concern whether she would maintain her hydration without it, but my dad and Debby were there this evening and said she was sucking down the fluids and she ate some supper too. Hopefully we continue on this path and can get her home soon.

Day #6 in the PICU

Jazmin had an okay night. She slept well, but spiked another fever, it came down with meds thankfully. This morning Amy went to the hospital early so I could spend a little time at home and not worry about her too much. That was a wonderful reprieve. I got there around noon, and she was sleeping peacefully. Her Pulmonologist rounded very late this afternoon, which was good for me cuz I had lots of questions! He said that her lungs are sounding better. They'll do another chest x-ray and more labs in the morning and if they are looking better, they'll turn down her IV and switch to oral antibiotics tomorrow afternoon. Because of Jazmin's already established in-home nursing, he's hoping to get her home early next week, where we can continue everything they're doing at the hospital...just at home. That's the good news. The bad news is her overall recovery time. He's guessing that it will be weeks to a few months before Jazmin is back to where she was before she got sick. This is a major bummer for her (and us). She will have to start the vent weaning process all over again. Hopefully she'll take to it faster since she's done it before, but there's no way to know. For now, we'll just continue to try and get her healthy so we can get her home where she belongs.