January 19, 2012

This morning when we woke up and Blair wasn't feeling well, and after talking with the doctor we think she has mastitis so since she was running a fever she wasn't able to go the hospital.  When I arrived in Harli's room I looked and noticed the machines were set the exact same way last night when I left.  I talked with the nurse and she had great reviews from the night nurse, and Harli had only four episodes during the night.  So in a twenty-four hour period she had a total of nine episodes, which no one seemed to be overly concerned.  While talking with the nurse I found out that they had moved the other babies surgery up forty-five minutes which only gave me about a half and hour in with Harli before I had to leave.

The surgery for the other baby in our module lasted from 9:15a.m. till 1:45 p.m. which was much longer than I had anticipated.  I was talking with the parents multiple times during the surgery and a nurse kept coming out and giving them very promising news about the surgery.  When it was over the parents informed me that if this surgery works like the doctors and nurses think it should then their baby should be off the EKMO machine in a couple of days.  What an answer to prayers, but now we need to pray for a speedy recovery.

Once again I am reminded how small of a world we all live in.  During the surgery I was out sitting by the elevators and a family started talking with me about where I was from and where they were from.  Long story short one of them said they were from Huntington and I explained I had gone to college in Huntington and played baseball while I was there.  The lady started laughing and asked if I knew a Dave Kennedy (Or as most know him Coach K) and I said yes I did.  She informed me that Dave was her brother and I informed her that I had been talking with Dave and his wife Carla over the past couple of weeks about Harli.  Come to find out Dave's niece has a baby here that was undergoing heart surgery.  I did find out that the surgery was successful and now they have to just wait for a good and speedy recovery.  Dave and Carla  have always been like extended family to Blair and myself and I would ask that you would pray for their family in the same manner in which you have been supporting us.

This afternoon when I got back into see Harli I noticed that she was laying on her stomach, which is something the nurses haven't been able to do because she falls asleep and forgets to breathe.  The nurse informed me that she had four episodes during the day but two of those don't count because they were while she was messing with her and she just kept getting worked up and then needed a few minutes to regain strength.  Every time today when she would have an episode Harli would get back on track by herself and didn't need help to remind her to breathe which is another step toward her recovery.  The doctors originally had Harli scheduled tomorrow to do her upper GI, where they give her the dye and watch it move throughout her system, but this morning I found out that has been changed to Monday morning.  The surgeons found out about the upper GI and they were worried that it was still to soon so they are the ones who got it pushed back to Monday.  I just think this is God stepping in and giving Harli a couple more days to heal before the test.  Please continue praying for the healing of Harli's intestine and that all the results we get on Monday are positive.

Blair was able to talk with her doctors at Henry County Hospital and they were nice enough to call the prescription in to the pharmacy at Riley Outpatient so I didn't have a far drive. Blair is now on her antibiotics and since it is mastitis the nurses told her that she is allowed back in to the room as long as she is not running a fever.  Even though it is something that can't be spread the nurses don't want anyone in the room that is running a fever just to be on the safe side.  The bad side to her being on antibiotics, and since she cant take penicillin because she is allergic, they had to put her on an antibiotic which means every time she pumps she will have to dump the milk.  Blair and I were a little reluctant but after talking to the nurses and finding out that she has ten bins of milk stored in the freezer and Harli won't be getting any until at least Monday we decided it would work out.

Once again my family thanks you for all the love, support, and prayers over the past couple of weeks.  I hope this blog is helping everyone get a little information what is going on from day to day, if there is something else you would like to see added let me know I will try to make changes as time permits, but my first priorities are my two women.

This is the position which Harli was in all day, the only change was they would turn her head from side to side. 

If you look real close in Harli's right hand you will see the end of her tube.  I guess she got tired of it being down her throat so she ripped it out.  I guess she also forgot to move her hand so it didn't look so obvious on who did it. 

The machine on the far left is the vapotherm machine.  Basically it is oxygen that is heated and then humidified before entering the body.