Day 250 - Weaning Clonidine & PEEP (And Mom goes to ER)

Monday, September 6th, 2021

New doctor this week who wanted to wean Clonidine. Said "We haven't weaned clonidine in a few days." An actuality it was just weaned Saturday, and it's Monday morning. She also wanted to wean PEEP to 10. Alright, let's make all the changes at once! 

Mom told her that one of the GI doctors would like to do the small bowel series to rule out an obstructions, but the PICU Doctor was not in agreement to get this done. So Mom had to really push for this. We're not just leaving here on a bunch of medication agains with no answers as to why his G-tube was expelling 3x the amount of gastric drainage. On top of this, bowel obstructions runs in the family. Both mom's dad and mom's grandmother had colon cancer. So we are better safe than sorry in checking it out.

A different GI Doctor came in and said "Oh he looks good, his heart rate is better now". Mom said, "yes he is sleeping". He said, "No his heart rate when he was sleeping was much higher before". Mom said, "That's because he was on Reglan". You know medicine that brought us back into the hospital that was prescribed by GI. He then let Mom know that he needed to find out the availability of a GI radiologist to do the the small bowel series or else it would be pointless if the person is not specialized in GI. So we're hoping to get that scheduled!

Around 11:30pm Mom decided to walk downstairs to admit herself to the Emergency Room (Adult) due to still being in pain from the miscarriage. We had a great night nurse and Mom felt comfortable leaving since James was in a deep sleep. Although this is probably too much information for some Mom is going to share in case this may help someone going through the same thing. Mom has been in horrible pain since the night of the Room-In. That was over 2 weeks ago (18 days). Her OB has been having her get labs done to watch her HCG level. The first 2 blood in labs were still high and pregnancy tests continued to come up positive. No amount of pain medication was giving any relief. There was a possibility that it was ectopic which is what Mom wanted to rule out by going to the ER, and also to hopefully get stronger pain killers. Most of the ER staff was nice and compassionate, although the first person that took Mom's medical history and handed her a blood pressure cuff asked, "So if you already know you are miscarrying, then why are you here?" 😞

Well after a urine test, blood test, TA and TV ultrasound, results showed that there was nothing in the fallopian tubes. The ER doctor suggested Mom get a D&C with an OB to just speed up the process of the miscarriage. However, Mom has already had to get a Hysteroscopy and D&C prior to both IVFs (it's standard procedure now). Having a D&C for a third time would negatively impact future fertility. Oh yeah and Mom was basically prescribed Ibprofen. Thanks. 🙄

On a side note, the ER was a pretty scary place to be not only because of the rampant covid but the homeless, the combative people that would not leave, the people that were sleeping in the waiting room. There were just a ton of people who are planning on using their hospital visit as a hotel and had no plans on leaving (the nurses were discussing this very loudly). Mom's room was right across from a man who decided to get physical with some of the nurses and was not leaving. Now Mom understands why she constantly hears Code Greys over the loudspeaker. That's when security needs to be called on someone. 

P.S. If you read the blog and are supporting James through his journey we would love you to participate in our video montage of everyone singing his lullaby. Please see the James Weston lullaby post for more details. ❤️

P.P.S. Thank you so much for the lullaby submissions so far! It's so exciting to have all of you be a part of something so special! 😭