Home

Today was our first full day back at home with all of the kids. Vincent is doing great. He's taking his meds even though they taste aweful and he's so cooperative. The home nurse came yesterday, changed the dressing on his PICC line and taught me how to administer the IV meds twice daily. It's a little intimidating since things need to be sterile and all.

We got home late Tuesday night. The hospital staff worked with our insurance and found a home health nurse to help with Vincent's home care. It took a day or so to work all this out and then everything was set for us to go. The doctor was hesitant to discharge us at night after his 8pm med. Too many stray bullets and bad guys in that part of town. But we took our chances with the bullets feeling it was riskier to hang out with harmful bacteria in the hospital.

The home nurse came Wednesday morning and spent 2 hours with us. After that, we got to just chill out for a couple hours. George pulled weeds that were taking over our yard and Vincent helped him. It was nice being outside. I went to two different drug stores trying to find some Purell in an effort to minimize our risk of bringing something home from the hospital with us and also keeping Vincent and everyone else in our house healthy. Unfortunately, it's a bad week to try and find hand sanitizer with the swine flu and Oprah's MRSA special, there is a serious shortage of the stuff. I couldn't find a single tiny bottle.

Daniel and Gavin came home Wednesday evening and we had a little welcome home celebration for us all, yay Oreos. Vincent showed Daniel his PICC line as he got hooked up to the IV that night. Fascintating. He's got a tube like spaghetti sticking into the crook of his arm that goes right to his heart.

We visited Vincent's primary physician today, tomorrow we visit the ENT (Ear, Nose & Throat specialist). Then we should be done with doctors for a couple weeks. The home health nurse plans to come out once a week to change the dressing on V's PICC line and we give Vincent medicine 6 times a day. 12am, 6am, 8am IV, 12pm, 6pm and 8pm IV. I guess we'll get used to it. The plan is to do this for at least four weeks, then they'll check out the inflammatory markers in his blood and see if he's done May 21 when we meet with the infectious disease specialist.

We want to thank all of you who have prayed for us, wished us well, come to visit us in the hospital, brought us food and motorcycles and supported us through this. We have been so blessed by you and we thank God for you. Please pray that Vincent continues to respond well to these antibiotics and that he doesn't have harmful side effects. Also pray that we spend our time wisely with our kids, being sensitive to how they are feeling, not wanting Daniel to feel left out and shuffled off in all the craziness.

Discharged

We're home and so glad to be here tonight. I'm just a little intimidated by all the medical supplies in our house right now.

Waiting for home

That's not a bandage on Vincent's head, it's a head band. His hair is getting so long, he couldn't play in the playroom today. He kept stopping to wipe the hair away from his forehead. We were just about to give him a little trim before all of this, poor guy.
I administered Vincent's IV antibiotics today for the first time. The nurse helped me do it. We need to wait for the home nurse from our area to come to the hospital and show me how to do it, I guess there are different set ups so I need to learn that before we are released. Vincent got unhooked from his leash (IV cord) once yesterday and again today for about 1 1/2 hours. He likes to go to the end of the hall where there's a little ramped corridor between the old and new sections of hospital. It echos in there, so he runs up and down around the corners yelling, waiting to be gotten. Then he laughs and laughs. I tickle him all the way back to our room so he doesn't get upset at getting back in his cage. He's done really well this whole time and is napping again right now. I'm so proud of him. I'm also so proud of Daniel who I'm told has behaved very well and Grandma and Grandpa's house this whole week.

Another blessing was having my parents live in the same town as the hospital. It's been really nice having that as a base of operations instead of having to drive twice as far home. Nursing Gavin is also going okay. I've been using the hospital pump 4-6 times a day and it's been enough to keep the little guy going.

Bandages off

The bandages were removed from Vincent's big head the other night, then yesterday morning the doctor removed the drain from behind his ear. The drain was the size of a big straw. Vincent is healing well. We hope to go home tomorrow. Yesterday they told us we would be administering the IV antibiotics for 4 weeks from home. Twice daily. This means we can give them while he sleeps at naptime and at night since it takes an hour or so to drip in. There is only one drug he'll be taking through IV after we leave the hospital, the other one he can take orally. We're happy about that because that one needs to be given every 6 hours by IV right now and would have been much more time hooked up at home.
I've been able to spend the last two nights at my parents, nursing Gavin a couple times and spending some much needed time with Daniel. George got to take Daniel home for a bit yesterday and then out to lunch. Daniel is handling all of this very well, but I know it's taking a toll on him emotionally. Re-entering normal life will be a little tricky I think. But we're really looking forward to going home, all of us.

Good News

The doctor came by today with really good news. The bacteria is negative so they're taking him off Vancomycin and continueing the other two- Rocephin and Flagil for those of you in the know. Vincen't blood work came back and looks excellent. They were looking at the white blood cell count and also some inflammatory markers, all of which are looking good- in fact better than expected. We still need to talk to a couple of the other specialists, but we're very encouraged by the news today. Right now it looks like V will be on IV antibiotics for 2 more weeks. We may be able to do this at home with his PICC line so he may only be in the hospital for a couple more days. We'll see.

Vincent has been getting lots of visitors and he's been playing happily all day, not too upset by the line coming out of his left arm. We are so blessed to have so much support from family and friends nearby. It's made the hospital stay much more pleasant than it otherwise would be.

There are many things that we can look at and see where God has worked, like the timing of things with our trip, the availability of specialist doctors and nurses when needed most, Vincent's language development and being able to express his needs, the availability of family to care for Vincent's brothers and that Daniel was already expecting to hang out at Grandma & Grandpas for awhile.

Daniel seems to be having the time of his life over at his grandparents enjoying lots of attention. Vincent also seems to really enjoy all the one on one attention he's getting during his hospital stay, this may have something to do with his extremely rapid speach development this week. It's crazy how much he's talking in the last few days. Maggie and him will be able to have long conversations when he gets home.

Morning TV

Daddy and Vincent are snuggling and watching motorcycles and 4-wheelers on tv this morning. Vincent slept good again last night despite the noisy room. We're told this is the worst room in the hospital, so hopefully we can get moved soon. We just got a really loud roommate. Everything is full right now. At least we're in the back corner of the room and next to a window, this gives us about twice the space and much more privacy than some other beds in here.
Vincent is getting used to hospital life. He now raises his arm for the nurse to take his tempurature in his armpit, so cute and cooperative.

We're back on

It's 12:15am and Vincent is finally hooked back up to the antibiotics. There seems to be a little miscommunication between all the doctors so he's getting all three antibiotics tonight. Hopefully we'll get it straightened out in the morning. Better to err on the side of precaution.
Vincent is sleeping peacefully. He's been such a trooper. I just love him so much, I don't think he could be any cuter and more charming. Even in these difficult circumstances he's all smiles. I thank God for him.

PICC line

The PICC line is in! He went under with anesthesia for the third time this week to get it in, we didn't want to take the chance of him moving while they were trying to thread it so we opted to knock him out. All went well, but he woke up really tired/hungry/thirsty/dizzy etc. He's fine now and once again playing in his crib looking all cute instead of going to sleep. So we'll get back on track with the antibiotics and hopefully find out tomorrow the final results from the cultures and just how long he'll be on which antibiotics. Today was a good day and we received good news several different times. So we are encouraged.
Having a PICC line might enable us to go home sooner too, since he'll be able to still get IV antibiotics at home with this instead of just oral ones which aren't as effective. Praise God for providing a great nurse to insert this PICC line today. Praise God that we got to get off one of the antibiotics and that we've pretty much ruled out one of our worst fears for the bacteria.

V Playing

Saturday

I guess the phone posts aren't going so good.
They havn't tried poking Vincent anymore today since there is only one vein left. We were fortunate to be able to book a very good nurse to place a pic line in Vincent this evening. We were scheduled to do this at 6, but it got bumped to 7pm due to another trauma. He's still in good spirits and has played well all day despite the fact that he hasn't been able to eat or drink anything since breakfast. He also took a good nap and slept well last night once he fell asleep at 1:30am.
Vincent is down to two antibiotics now. Still nothing has grown in the cultures taken which suggests that the antibiotic that he was first on at the hospital was working. They took him off of Vancomycin which was the strongest, so we are very thankful for that. One of the antibiotics can be given by shot every 24hrs which he got late last night. He took the oral antibiotics well, with some help from icecream at 6am and a few drops of meds in each spoonful, what a breakfast. He's due for his next med at 6pm, so we're praying they get the pic line in successfully and we can start with the meds again very soon.
The pic line will go in his arm and thread all the way to a vein near his heart. We may even go home with this in if IV meds are needed after we leave. He'll have full mobility with this which we're very happy about since we were worried about him being able to suck his thumb.
So we received good news several times today. The doctor said the stars aligned for us, but we know it is the power of prayer. Thank you all for continuing to pray. Thank you also for the many emails and comments sent our way. We are blessed to have such a wonderful support network and thankful for you all. I wish I had time to respond to each email, but hospital life is crazy. Just know we appreciate it.

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Pin cushion

Tonight, Vincent got poked endlessly by 5 nurses and a doctor. No one could get the IV in. So we're going with plan B tonight. He got a double shot of one of the antibiotics, then he needs oral doses of the other two. Apparently they taste really bad so we're unsure of how much he'll take and how effective they will be compared to the IV dose. Please pray that tomorrow we'll be able to get the IV in. Vincent's infection spread rapidly in a few days from his ear to the mastoid bone behind his ear. During the surgery last night the Dr. drained an abscess, then scraped away some bone that was infected as well. It looks possible from the CT scan that the infection has even spread passed the bone into the brain. The antibiotics are needed to combat this infection and he's not getting the full doses and we're behind on them.
We are quickly learning how important it is for us to advocate and be assertive about what Vincent needs. We are asking God for wisdom in how to handle our job in all of this, not really having the medical knowledge but needing to take an active role in the care he receives.
It's almost midnight and Vincent was exhausted after all the poking, he drifted off in the treatment room right before he got Rocephin shots. Then we brought him back to his bed where he was drifting off, but then he decided to play. So he's acting all goofy and talking and smiling right now. He just couldn't be any cuter. The poor guy has been through such an ordeal today.

IV troubles

Vincent's foot was swelling today, so they ended up taking the IV out and haven't been able to put a new one in anywhere. They're wanting to put it in his arm now since the vein is bigger up there, but then he wouldn't be able to bend his arm. He sucks his thumb and holds his little giraffe and the IV in his arm would make this difficult. Please pray they could get the IV in his foot and that it can stay. He's getting antibiotics 9 times a day, so the IV is really important for the next week or so.
As of this afternoon, no bacteria is growing in the culture sample they took...so we wait.

Hospital Photos

Photos from my phone. This is Vincent and George last night before surgery. He's got the IV in his foot which he hasn't pulled out yet, thankfully and he can still walk around with it.

Here's Vincent this morning. Happy as can be. What a good kid.

A Blessing

Our sweet little boy is in good spirits this morning. He slept good last night woke up pretty happy. He's been playing with his bakabakas (motorcycles) in his crib for the last few hours. He's also eating and drinking well. He doesn't have a fever which is a good sign.
One thing I was thinking about this morning is Vincent's speech. It's only been a few weeks since he started talking in earnest and what a blessing this is. He's able to communicate what he wants very effectively and I think this whole thing would be much more frustrating for him if he couldn't say things like "I wunt wogurt." He seems to be talking more today than he ever has.
My friend Angela shared this with me this morning, what an encouragement.

God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble

He is very present in our troubles. His hand is guiding us. We have lots of love, support and prayers and for this we are very thankful.

I've been taking pictures and a little video, both with my phone and our camera. I just can't upload it to the computer...I don't know how to from my phone and the sd card makes the laptop malfuntion. So, sorry for the text only posts Wendy. You'll have to take my word for it, Vincent looks like a little angle in his hospital gown which goes right down to his toes. His head is all wrapped in gauze with to straggly blond locks sticking out the top. His face/eyes are a bit swollen. But he's chatty and happy.

Antibiotics

mincey slept good last night. he's getting 3 different powerful antibiotics for the next couple days until the cultures come back.

Out of Surgery

It's almost 11pm, we just got back to our "party room". Vincent came through surgery fine. He got tubes put behind both ears to drain and had a mastoidectomy behind his right ear. He's got a big bandage wrapped around his head right now and he's sitting quietly in daddy's lap watching TV and sucking his thumb. He just got to sip some water for the first time in over 24 hours.
Vincent has a great Dr. working on him, we've heard several good things about him. So we're thankful that he is in good hands. Of course, ultimately we are in God's hands and we trust that He will see us through this.
Before he went into surgery, Vincent was perky; charming everyone in the waiting room with his playful smiles. Hopefully we'll see some of that tomorrow after a good nights rest.

CT scan

Vincent had his ct scan around 3 today. It was a little worse than they were hoping with the infection going into the bone and he has a pretty large abscess that needs to be drained. After we got this news, the Dr. came back in to go over the scan with us having looked at it with the radiologist. The news got worse. We're waiting for our attending physician to talk to the infectious disease consultant but it's possible that the infection has gone through the bone and into the epidural space. I'm not sure if I'm describing this right, but it's not good news and I'm really shaken up right now.
Vincent hasn't eaten or drank anything all day and this evening he'll be put under anesthesia again in the O.R. to have the abscess drained and find out how deep it goes. They will take a culture to see what the bacteria is.
Please pray that the Doctors will have wisdom in how to treat V and what antibiotics to give him. Pray for Vincent's spirits, he did great all day but has now decided he does not want to be here anymore. He's asleep at the moment, fortunately. We are very thankful for all of the prayers and support we have been receiving. We are also thankful to be in a facility where we are receiving wonderful care from the doctors and nurses.

Scan shceduled

ct scan is scheduled for around 2:30pm.

Phone posts

this is my first attemp at posting to the blog using my phone. I'll try to keep updates re: Vincent on here. no word on when the ct scan will be yet.

At the hospital

We've had quite a day and I wanted to share with you all what is happening. I'm currently at Children's Hospital in Oakland as I sit next to Vincent sleeping. He's been admitted for complications to an ear infection. The name of his condition is mastoiditis. Vincent is getting antibiotics through an IV tonight and tomorrow (hopefully in the morning) he will get a CT scan to find out more about the abcess in his ear. The infection has gotten into the bone behind his ear and we'll find out more about it after the scan.

How did we get here? We took Vincent to the Dr. on Monday for and ear infection. His ear had been draining and we waited through the weekend to have him seen. They sent us home with a diagnosis of an ear infection in each ear and put him on amoxacillin on Monday. The next day his right ear was more red and swollen, in fact his ear is visibly sticking out. We called and were told to wait another day for the antibiotics to kick in. So today we called again and went in. The Doc sent us to an ENT specialist who told us we should go check into the hospital. This is a serious condition.

Serious and rare. My heart sank as I read about mastoiditis on Wikipedia just now. This day has been surreal and my head has been spinning the whole time. It's just starting to sink in how serious this situation is. We need prayer and lots of it. We have many things to be thankful for today. We got the last bed here at Children's Hospital, we had to wait a couple hours for it to open up, but we're in a better place than we would have been otherwise (the overflow). The specialist was able to see Vincent right away today. Childcare arrangements for Daniel were already set up for the next few days as we had planned to attend my dear friend's wedding in Vancouver. We were home and not in Canada when Vincent's condition showed itself. Vincent has been miserable for quite a few days now. He's never shown that much discomfort with ear infections before. But this morning his left eardrum ruptured and after that painful incident, he was feeling pretty good, playing in the backyard and smiling. He was such a trooper today at the Doctors and waiting in the waiting room of the hospital tired and hungry and thirsty for 2+ hours until they had his bed ready. We didn't come prepared with anything since we thought we were just going in for a routine visit. He's such a great kid.

So far I've been told we'll probably be in the hospital at least 48 hours.

Please pray that Vincent will sleep well, that he won't pull his IV out- it's in his foot. We're sharing a room with 5 other patients plus their parents. Pray that the Doctors will have wisdom in how to treat him and that we can get the scan early in the day tomorrow. He won't be able to eat or drink anything until the scan since they plan to sedate him. We're also coordinating nursing Gavin with being at the hospital. George shuttled him here and home tonight. Thank you all for your support and prayers. God is in control.

DooDoo & YaYa

Daniel has a couple new babies. He told me about them yesterday. His babies names are DooDoo and YaYa. I asked where they were, I wanted to see them. He said they were in his tummy. Today, they were at the lunch table. I heard him from the kitchen talking to them. "Who wants a preztle? Who's one..DooDoo? No. YaYa? Yes, YaYa is one, you can have a preztle. Who's two? Tracy? Okay, you can have one too."

Gavin's first meal

Gavin has had his eye on the dinner table for a couple months now. He fusses until he gets to sit up there with everyone else, then he watches intently as food goes into each mouth. Last night he got to try eating himself and he gobbled it up in no time going for seconds after crying that it was over. He ate like he's been doing it for months. He'll be 5 months in a few days.
This bathrobe was handed down to us from some friends. Thanks Wendy. Both boys have been lounging around the house in it. Vincent is seen here finishing off my breakfast.
Dominic and Gavin are getting more and more friendly and interactive. We get to play with him all day today, so that will be fun...if we can get them on the same schedule. Half the time one is sleeping while the other is playing.
The boys got to witness their first rocket launch last week. Brian treated us to this and it was very exciting...scary and exciting.

2pm

At 2pm, Daniel was drawing a picture of his aunties, he pointed to each line and named them off.
He's been working on tracing shapes and letters on his dry erase board this week.
At 2pm, Gavin was hanging out in the Bumbo like a punk.
At 2pm, Vincent was asleep. He goes down around 1 these days and Daniel gets to hang out by himself for a little while. There goes mom's sacred naptime, but there is peace in the house.


Snuggle time is a favorite around here. Daniel is a sweetheart. He often asks If I can lay next to him on the couch when he's watching TV. Then he gets this sweet, cheesy look on his face and says "I love you mom." Melts my heart. Check out the dirty fingernails that Gavin's gnawing on!
Something clicked in Vincent's head this week and now he's talking up a storm. Last month it all sounded like gibberish, I'm sure he was saying real words in his head, they just weren't coming out where we could understand them. Now he's all talk and pretty clear a lot of the time. His favorite phrase... "I want that" erg.

The cousins came up for a visit last weekend. They all had a blast playing in the backyard and pigging out at the Ice Creamery.

Jumper

Our little blue eyed boy is now in the jumper. He only likes it for a couple minutes, especially when his older brothers try and make it extra fun. I love the newborn phase, and it's gone now. Gavin is 4 months old and starting to move around. If I leave him lying on the floor, he'll get himself turned all the way around, he scoots and scoots.
Vincent loves the little blue doggie. When he gets tired, he collects the dog and his thumb and relaxes with this distant look in his eye. He's also got a bit of jelly on his cheek. We have PB&Js at least every other day, I really try to mix it up, but they're so great.
We got to go to the mountains last weekend with my sister, Megan. We all had a good time. It was a nice break, beautiful weather and scenery and the boy loved staying in the cabin, walking through the woods and sledding on a warm sunny day.
On the drive up, Daniel kept asking if we were going to our Castle referring to the Glen Eyrie in CO Springs that we went to last January. There was snow there then and since we told him we were going to the snow, of course he assumed that's where we were going. He got upset when we told him we were going to a cabin, not a castle. But it turned out okay once we got there, Daniel was immediatly super excited about "our cabin".
An hour before we were set to leave for the mountains, Daniel sliced his index finger. We still don't know how. The poor guy bled for about 45 minutes while George applied pressure trying to get it to stop. Apparently, elevating it above the heart helps and once the nurse told us this, the bleeding stopped pretty fast. The whole event was very traumatic and wore Daniel out, so he took a good nap on our drive.


Vincent and Daniel enjoyed taking walks in the woods and finding walking sticks, pinecones and snow. I loved Vincent's choice of walking stick, the stout little thing fit so perfectly.
George and Vincent enjoyed lunch at Sonic as Daniel and Gavin slept in the car.
Gavin is 4 months old, 14 lb, 12oz. He's 25 1/4" tall. He sleeps from around 7pm to 6am on a good night which is fairly consistent. Gavin loves his brothers and gets lots of hugs and kisses from them. He loves being held and is very active and strong. He has the most beautiful voice when he coos and chats especially on the changing table. And he's ticklish and has the best laugh and smile. His most striking feature right now are his blue eyes. His hair is in the process of falling out, but I think he might escape going completely bald. I've seen some shimer on his head so I think the new blonde hair might grow in before he loses all the stuff he was born with.
Gavin is grabbing at everything in sight and more often than not it seems to be with his left hand. So as of right now, I think we've got two lefties and Vincent is right handed. The only one I'm sure about it Daniel though.