Infections, Fevers, and Spinal Taps....Oh my!

The days that follow the surgery for the colostomy and g-tube we just start learning as much about how to care for the new "accessories" as we can.  I know they will not let you take him home unless they feel I know how to care for him, so I pretty much don't let the nurses do any of the diaper changes and have them monitor me and show me how to do the whole colostomy "thing".  Terms like "burp his bag" are now part of my daily dialogue.....who am I???  I was the girl who was scared to death of needles and blood, now I am caring for a protruding bowel out of my month old baby!  Kind of impressed at how far I have come :)

Eric and I have to take a little class on caring for the G-Tube and colostomy from the Physician Assistant in the Surgery Department so we set up a time to meet with her.  Our friend Barb agrees to watch Kierstin so we are able to go together.  Trying to get all of this out of the way so once he is healed up we can go home!

We head in together to go to the class and Preston was running a fever.  Oh great I think to myself.  We meet the PA and proceed with the class learning about caring for the G-Tube.  A few minutes after we start the Doctor comes in to check on Preston and then a bunch of doctors surround him.  They take some blood samples to see if he has an infection.  Of course at this point we are so distracted and worried that we can't continue the class and have to reschedule.

Later that night we learn he has an infection and they have him on a few antibiotics to get rid of it.  Infection probably a result of the surgery, but they don't know for sure.  So of course we worry and his fever is pretty consistent the next couple of days.  It goes down with tylenol than goes back up.

I come in one morning and one of the doctors comes up to me and says they were trying to call me (my phone never rang since they were calling my home phone 2 hours away....communication at this hospital is awful!)  Preston spiked a 102 degree fever  so they put him on 2 other antibiotics and were able to get the fever down.  He was fine by the time I got to his bedside but I was so mad.  I had given them my cell number countless times!  I had them double check they had it in the computers, they did.  It just seemed like every time we would see a light a the end of the tunnel we would turn away from it and lose hope that we would ever take him home.  So I pretty much held him and worried the rest of the day.

The next day they wanted my permission to do a spinal tab to test for meningitis.  Since he had a fever so high they recommend this for all babies, because they don't often get a high fever like that.  I told them I had to think about it so I talked to Eric who was back at work in PA.  We agreed that if he had that going on too, we would want to know about it.  So I agreed, but was absolutely freaked out about it!  They do this right at his bed, but did now want me to be there (I think because I would freak out the doctor out).  So many risks in a spinal tab in a baby, but I guess they do it all the time.  I hate al these tests, I hate all the blood work all the IV's, everything.  Preston does not like any of it and his little cry breaks my heart!  I don't care that they do it all the time, this is my precious baby and I think he has been through enough.  I pretty much start fighting with them on every think I think is unnecessary from this point on.

Anyhow, I guess he did great for his spinal tab and cried more about them making him stay still than anything.  He does hate to be still!  So I smooch him the rest of the day and find out the next day he was negative for meningitis!  yay!  He still has the infection thought and the one antibiotic he needs to be on for 10 days.  So I guess we are there for at least 10 more days.  Nobody seems to have any sort of an exit plan for us and I am getting upset.  Preston starts doing and feeling better over the next few days.  Eating is going better, not great but better.  I am loving the G-tube because he still gets all he needs, even if he does not want to get it orally.  I am ready to go home though.....Preston is ready, but still they just tell me we have to wait.....you would think I would be good at this by now!