Day 21: Rocky 24 hours

As exciting as yesterday was during the day, in the evening and today throughout the day we have been presented with some bumps in the road.

During the day Loki's settings on the oxygen he needed were higher than usual. Although this in and of itself does not necessarily provide information, I (Mom) did not feel comforted when the nurses told me he was doing fine. Something did not feel right, despite the fact I was still a little bit on a high from holding him, and I still am! In the evening primary nurse Amber told us Loki did not seem to be his old self; he did not seem to feel well. Throughout the evening he had more and more bradies and desats. Thanks to Amber's quick response, a series of actions were undertaken to figure out what could be causing this change.

Unfortunately Loki has a staph infection, often caused by a bacterium on the skin, which easily can get inside the body due to many blood draws etc. In addition to having had a hemoglobin and platelet transfusion and two antibiotics to deal with the infection, he also had another brain ultrasound to make sure the representation of symptoms was not caused by a brain hemorrhage. Fortunately, this came back good. In fact, the little bleed in the germinal matrix noticed in the beginning seemed to have almost disappeared.

Also, as his last blood gas test did not come back as good as expected, he had another chest x-ray, and they found his lungs were not expanding as much as they like to see. This could be caused by being sick, or maybe they changed the vent settings a little more quickly than he could handle. In any regards, they changed the settings so that he has a little more help expanding his lungs while breathing. In the morning they will do some more blood work to make sure that his kidney is functioning okay, with all the medication in his body. Poor little guy!!!

Of course the past 24 hours have been exhausting, scary and sad. It is difficult to see Loki go through all these procedures and changes. He is such a tiny, little, handsome munchkin. However, we feel so blessed with the nurses he has. Both Margaret and Amber so clearly know our little guy, and seeing them being so attuned to what is happening with him, gives a lot of faith and comfort.

We know Loki is a strong fighter and he will get past this, but a few extra prayers wouldn't hurt.
Hopefully tomorrow we can take a step forward again!