The Complicated Time – Chapter 2
Welcome back.
After a wonderful, uncomplicated weekend at home, we ran into a couple more issues at the start of the week. Starting late in the day on Monday, Rowan’s appetite dropped significantly and he was spitting up any food we did manage to get in him (except, fortunately, the 15mg containing his medicine). On top of that, we were noticing and hearing more issues with his breathing. NICU doctors and our midwife team had assured us a lot of those breathing issues were not unexpected for newborns, but combined with the loss of appetite it was evident something was up. A visit from his midwives led to an ambulance ride to Guelph General where Rowan received a chest x-ray and some more bloodwork and was put on a couple of IVs. They are convinced that the seizures have returned, and that he’s had quite a few today.
Fast forward a few hours and we’re back to McMaster, down the hall from the NICU in the PICU. The chest x-ray showed evidence of infection in Rowan’s lungs, which might help explain the difficulty breathing and could have been a stressor that helped contribute to the new bouts of seizures. He’s now on antibiotics to try to address the infection. We also learned that the torso ultrasound he received in the NICU found a blood clot in his liver, so they’re planning to do another ultrasound tomorrow to confirm and then work on dissolving it (the clot, not the liver). The initial metabolic test from a couple of weeks ago came back and is negative for all diagnoses, but we’re waiting for a specialist in that area to officially talk us through those results.
The PICU allows both parents to visit Rowan at the same time, any time 24 hours a day. Only one parent at a time can sleep there, however, so for tonight Amber and I are staying at a local hotel. We’ll hopefully know more tomorrow but we’ll probably take it day-by-day, staying here or maybe moving back into Ronald McDonald House if it looks like it may be a while.
What could we use today? Well, I could probably use a haircut. We could both use some sleep. Other than that, keep those thoughts, prayers, and good vibes coming – they’re really helping us all get through this. If we need anything else, we’ll let you know in these posts.
