Happy Halloween?

Happy Halloween? Not so much for Loki.

Unfortunately, While Dad was out of town, I got sick the day before Halloween (which is Oct. 31), with what I thought was food poisoning. However, by Halloween afternoon Loki had the same symptoms and within hours we were at the hospital emergency room for the initial stage of dehydration. Loki was very pale, very fussy and was unable to keep anything in. In addition, he was crying without tears and his pee had decreased significantly. Because we responded rapidly, by the time he was receiving his IV fluids to rehydrate, his creatinine was still within normal range. However, his BUN and ketone levels were elevated already.

We spent 6 hours at the ER of Children's Hospital Oakland. Overall we had great nurses and good care. Unfortunately hygiene standards of the intake nurse were less than desirable. We hope Loki will not catch whatever the family before him had, which was obviously contagious as they were all required to wear face masks.

At 11 pm, we were back home with a perkier Loki. Over night he was still very thirsty and woke up frequently wanting to drink Pedialyte hydration solution by mouth from an open cup. He drank the amount of two complete feedings: very impressive, but apparently only possible when he is dehydrated, because it has not happened ever since. It is exciting to know though that he is able to swallow without aspiration.

Sunday and Monday were very, very challenging. The extension tubes that plug into his G-tube button were not functioning well because they are simply too old (and we have not received our refills yet), causing the syringe to no longer remain connected to the extension. Also, the extension easily fell out of the button. And the valve in the button was not closing, and the button itself kept opening up, as usual, so some of his feeds just dripped straight out. On top of that, much of the Pedialyte came out either end. During the day it took 2 hours to get 75 mL of Pedialyte in by hand syringe (versus 105 mL of milk in a normal feeding), this every three hours..... do your math.

Loki also started to miss his daddy, he often looked around when I said "daddy." He did not take his naps, nor did he sleep much overnight after 2:30 am. I believe this was partially caused by being homesick for super dad.

During all the commotion, I did not really have time to recover from my own stomach bug, from which I just needed to catch up on sleep a tiny bit. More than three hours seemed like a wonderful night. Thankfully Opa and Oma were here as well, and they picked up as much of the care as possible. Opa had a crash course feeding and he rapidly became quite skilled.

Yesterday, we saw the doctor again, and unfortunately Loki lost almost a full pound. However, we all agreed that hydration is more important right now. The plan is to be back to full formula/breastmilk feeds by Saturday. Until then, we are building up his tolerance for volume slowly but steadily, this time with the pump. Super Dad, with a fresh mind from his four days of music and camping, figured out we could use the pump again with this new extension (which keeps the pump tube in the extension) and an even tighter girdle (which keeps the extension in the button). This makes a HUGE difference.

On a much more positive note, Loki crawls well, although only when he really wants to reach object--never just because he like to crawl. Video will follow when we have a new camera. (Dad accidentally washed our camera with the laundry). Loki also hands over objects on request or spontaneously and he especially likes to share his pacifier with me: very, very cute. He pulls my hand to push buttons and he looks up to find Faddy, Oma, Opa, duck, cat, mama and once in a while Ganesh (a little statue near his bed). He loves looking at pictures and will turn the page in a book very well when we make the initial separation for him. Finally, our handsome miracle dances when we start to sing--very cute!

Loki's mood has significantly changed since his dad came home yesterday. He also slept really well overnight, and he has kept all his Pedialyte feedings in since yesterday evening. Thanks to Dad, who took the entire overnight shift so I could finally recover a little bit, I fell much better as well.

Poor little guy: