Another New Home..........

June 11 & 12 2008

Wednesday Night to Thursday Night

OK. The roller coaster of preemies has left the gate. We have a new home for the time being. Wednesday evening Aleia started to have a little issue with digestion. SO the staff started to watch her more closely. By Wednesday night at 9pm her stomach was very distended and she was becoming lethargic and non responsive. So by 11:30 they suspected an infection. The infection they were afraid of was in her intestine and could be VERY serious. It’s called NEC. It can become very bad, very quick and can have severe side effects. (those of the worst kind) So they “suggested” they she be transferred to another hospital that would be able to take care of her if her condition worsened. So we agreed and they attempted to send her to Scott & White in Temple. After a phone call, it was determined they could not take her. So the next option was the Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston. They had a space for her and we were now on the road to Houston. This was about 12:30 am when it was arranged. The hospital in Houston would come and pick her up and take her back to Houston. They arrived to take her back about 2:15am. So she was loaded into a similar system as her previous move and then put into the ambulance. The ambulance then drove to the BCS airport and then she was put on a plane and flown to the Houston Airport. They loaded onto another ambulance and drove her to the Texas Children’s. We were not able to ride with her on any of this trip. We followed the ambulance to the BCS airport and then we went home to get a few things, load up, and then drove to Houston. As we were on the road to Houston, they called and told us she had made it and her location and bed number at Texas Children’s. That was about 4:30. So we got into Houston about 6:00 and to the hospital around 6:30. Well they are “closed” for shift change around then and so we had to wait until 7:15 to get in and see her. So we did. Then once we got in to see her, she looked the same and she was stable and that was good. So we waited around until about 10:30 am for the Doctors to make the rounds. Once they made it to her, they discussed her situation and asked us a few questions. And they decided the current course of action was to just wait and see. She is on general antibiotics and has a tube that is sucking small amounts of air out of her stomach regions. This is just to keep down the distension of her belly and keeps pressure off of her lungs so she can breathe better. They ran some test in Bryan before we left and we have to wait until those results are back to determine the next course of action. Those tests take 48 hours to get back good results. So the doctors said it would be Saturday morning until we got those tests back and made the next course of action. So once that was over around 11:30, Tami and I went and slept in the car for about 45 minutes. Then we went up to the Ronald McDonald house in the hospital and got a room for a nap. The rooms were only available from 1-5 pm for napping. So we got up there about 12:20 and they actually had pizza delivered for lunch, so we had some lunch. Then we got our room once it was ready and finally got some sleep. We really needed it. Tami was really out of it. I was not too great either, but I am used to running on less sleep. She is not. So we got a room with no windows and had a good nap. After our nap we felt better, but still pretty worn. Once we got up and out of the room at 5pm, we went back to see Aleia. She was looking better and had some color and alertness back. Whew! It was nice to see a small peek of her eyes. It was a relief to know that she was getting better. We stayed for a while and Tami got to hold her for the first time in a long while. So it was good for both of them. We found out that we did note get to have a room at the Ronald McDonald House for the night. They have only 20 rooms and its based on the severity of the illness and the distance from home. Not sure how it really works, but we did not get one. Which I guess we should consider a good thing. I feel for those who have children that are sicker and in more need of medical care than Aleia. I can’t imagine there feelings. Aleia’s nurse (Kirsten) is very good and nice to us. She talked to us about all kinds of things and just helped us feel a little more at ease. So that was good. She even tried to work some magic to get us a room at the RMH. But no luck. So we just decided to drive home. We were both so exhausted that we felt it would be best to come home, sleep in our own bed, and take care of ourselves for a bit. So we left Houston about 8pm and got some dinner on the way home. We pulled into BCS about 10pm. And then we went to bed. SLEEP!

Just in case you are wondering, Ashlynn is with Tami’s mom in New Mexico for all of this. I actually drove them back on Tuesday. So Ashlynn is somewhat unaware of the whole ordeal, which we have decided is ok. She is going to be in Dallas starting Friday to stay and play with her cousin, Jack. They have loads of fun together and that will be best for her to be having fun and oblivious. This allows Tami and I to concentrate on Aleia and ourselves when we can. But we sure miss Ashlynn.