This blog is a chronology of our story and should not be used as the basis for medical treatment or diagnosis. From time to time, you will find links to other websites that we have found helpful, however we offer no guarantees as to the accuracy of these websites. At all times, please use your own good judgment and the advice of qualified medical physicians and specialists.

September 4, 2007

Friday, May 14, 2010

Another week. Hard to believe. Michael now weighs 9 1/2 pounds. We are trying to fatten him up for his next surgery, but instead of getting fatter, he keeps getting taller! He is now 22 1/4 inches tall.

Michael has been taking nebulizer treatments three times a day starting last Friday, and it has made life a little more interesting for Mom and Dad. Not only do we have another procedure to do with him three times a day, but also the procedure has changed Michael's secretions and what he sounds like when he is "normal". Before now, Michael's "normal" was thin, watery secretions that needed to be suctioned before, during, and after each meal and every time he cried. Now, his secretions range from thin and watery to extremely thick, and his suctioning schedule is more random. The big difference is that he has copious secretions after the nebulizer and can remain "clear" for anywhere from minutes to hours afterward. To make matters even more interesting, Michael is trying so hard to make sounds any way he can, so he continues to use these secretions to communicate. It is hard to tell when he is trying to babble with his gurgles, and when he needs to be cleared. (And it doesn't help that Mom had one day where neither suctioning machine was working quite right, so we could never get him as cleaned as we wanted him to be (and now, of course, we worry often that it is happening again!))

Michael is a sweet and happy baby who smiles all the time. It makes up for the sleepness nights and the added non-new baby difficulties like last Saturday, when the power went out to the house at around 9 PM. Adam was out of town, so Megan and two friends worked to pack up all of Michael's necessary things so we could go to a hotel room. (We called the power company and the doctor and decided a hotel was safest.) We packed up everything that wasn't still attached to the baby, which took some time. Then Megan called a nearby hotel, to confirm they had a room and power, and while she was speaking to them, the lights came back on. (Yay!) Well, it came back to most of the house. As it turns out, there was a problem with a shorted "neutral wire" in the fuse box that was not diagnosed and fixed until late Monday afternoon, so Michael has been living in the family room for four days. It has been an adventure! Cutie Michael just smiled through the whole thing. He didn't miss his room one little bit.

Thanks as always for folks who have been bringing by food and coming to help get Michael out the door for doctors appointments and stuff. Thanks also for all the folks calling to check in on us and praying for us. It is hard to name everyone, but special thanks this week to K___, J___ and I____ for helping Megan out on Saturday during the power outage. We are so glad you were here with us.

For those of you keeping track of our insurance situation, we have no news to report. As of this time, our nursing care ends on Wednesday.

On a happier note, Michael wants you all to know that he is cheering hard for Penn State this year, and he hopes you will all do the same. WE ARE ... PENN STATE!

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