Dear Henry, the day after the call

I'm back to answer some of those questions for myself and for everyone who wants to know... 

Now that we are a few days after, what I can honestly say was the worst day of my life, we have a little more information. 

On Monday morning at 5 am Matt and I got up to go be by Henry's bedside and wait. Once I arrived things were touch and go and Henry was critical. I kept my crying to a minimum but I wept inside for a solid 24 hours. He was a totally different baby this morning from his normal, he was pale, he wasn't moving around very much at all and I couldn't touch him. It was heartbreaking.

They came in a took an x-ray of his stomach around 7am and by 8am the doctor was in to talk to us. He said that Henry is sick and he has an infection that they are doing some tests to see what it is, his belly is still firm and tender and he doesn't have any bowel sounds (which means nothing is moving around in there, which is bad). The Doctor said theres a lot of gas in his stomach and that there might be a blockage in his intestines, but he wasn't sure if it was full or partial. He said we will take another x-ray later today and see if it improves, gets worse or what happens. Henry hasn't peed since Sunday and thats a problem too, so they are going to start pumping him full of fluid until he does. Here comes the next BOMB... surgery is a possibility, if things don't start to look up then a surgeon will be in to look at him... For now he was on antibiotics and steroids to help him. He is connected to so many things right now. 

His ventilator settings were all turned up and his oxygen level was turned down from 95% the night before to 55% early Monday to 38% by 9am.

I just started to feel scared and wonder how far back this illness will set him in his quest to get out of NICU in the next 3 months....

Around 2pm he had another blood transfusion. 

By 4 pm things started to look a little better. A new doctor was in and she came to check on Henry, she said after looking over labs, the culture is negative so far and seeing that he is starting to respond to the steroids and antibiotics. They think that the stomach problems are secondary to the infection, which is a wonderful thought. If he is just sick right now and he needs to get better we can deal with that... its the stomach issues that are the most concerning. So if we are just having a temporary set back, then Henry can smash this no problem. 

So we are leaving him, feeling a little bit better, snuggled in warm blankets, cozy, still sick, but things are looking up. 

- Nikki