Closer to Home

No picture to accompany this blog today, sorry. I have been taking lots of them but don't have the means to upload photos, didn't think we'd be here for this long. But I promise lots of cute ones when I got home or if my parents bring them down here for me.

Joaquin continues to improve, in fact, I would say that he's 98% better. The only reason that we are here in the hospital still is because he needs to have his antibiotics and they need to be given one of three ways: 1) through the IV, 2) through a PICC line or 3) by a shot. Right now they are giving him them through an IV. We've already had to replace the IV one time since we've been here but the nurses and doctors are all well aware that he is a hard stick so they call in the big guns to place the IVs. And Joaquin is very cooperative through them.

They wanted to keep him in the hospital until they finished weaning him off of the anti-seizure medicines, which they did yesterday. Now, it's a matter of figuring out how we want to administer the antibiotics. They really want us to have a PICC placed, but we are not comfortable with putting him under anesthesia to do so. The other option beside staying in the hospital so they can be given through an IV is to give him two shots once a day. Apparently the only reason that the doctors are not so keen on giving the shots are because the nurses consider them to be, for lack of a better word the doctors says, inhumane. Or cruel. Now, I can see how a person would see this but I guess I would say that I view putting my child under anesthesia, for which he has proven that he does not tolerate well, cruel.

I remember vividly the last time we put him under, the nurse was joking with me about how he was feeling good since he had this far off, dazed, glazed over look in his eyes just before he passed out. Yeah, that's really funny. It actually broke my heart.

So today we will figure out what exactly we want to do as far as administering the drugs. We will have to stay down here for the duration of the antibiotic treatment, but we will stay at the Ronald McDonald House, our home away from home. When packing to come down here I really didn't figure that we'd be here for so long. It'll be two weeks by the time we come home.

On the upside of things, the doctors are very pleased with Joaquin. He's weighing in at a little over 28 pounds and he's 33 inches tall. The last time that anyone here saw him was in February and he's really made the leap from being a baby to a little boy. He's eating well, drinking well.

He hasn't had his ng tube in since last Wednesday. They took it out in the ER at St. Mary's in Reno and haven't put it back yet. They've decided that instead of giving him 2 liters of fluid, they will only be giving him 1.3 liters. They figure that he will have the ng out in about 6 months! He's been drinking around 6oo mL every day, which is about half of what he now needs. So what we'll be doing is not giving him anything by ng during the day now and give him what ever he didn't drink during the day over night. While in the hospital, they have been giving him the rest of the liquids he needs by IV, so it's been nice. This is the first time he hasn't worn an ng for his whole life. Sad, but exciting! They figure that a reason why he had the seizures was because he was getting too much water and one of the doctors was saying that after the first year of having a kidney so hydrated that the chances of the kidney doing good, research shows, is very good. Joaquin's so used to having the ng in that he doesn't' really mind it anymore. We've been talking to him about how he needs to drink more water or liquids so that he can have it out, but he doesn't really grasp that yet. I think he will very soon though.

So that's a little bit of an update. The doctors think he should be discharged by tomorrow. Thank you for all the prayers and good vibes and love. Thank you.