Round Two

Mitchell has been having what look like little seizures. He had 2 last Friday and they slowly increased to 5-6 a day lasting about 30-60 seconds. So Tuesday Jansen had his 2 year old check up and we decided to bring Mitchell along to ask about them. Well, luckily he had a seizure in front of the doctor, who told us we needed to get that checked out right away, and wanted us to go to the ER. Not wanting to have to come back another day, I said "well Jansen only needs a few immunizations, so lets get those taken care of first." Dr. Terry must think I'm an idiot. He told me at the end of the day, Jansen would be fine, but we need to leave RIGHT now for the ER and he was calling them to tell them we were on our way.

We got there and they ran a bunch of tests, (a cat scan, blood work, urinalysis) and admitted Mitchell. We go up to the PICU and Mitchell's room has a crib and a chair for me. There is no bed, and the chair doesn't recline! I asked his nurse 6 different times if I could get a bed, a different chair that lays back, another chair to push the two together... no luck! In fact what she said to me, "if you wind-up staying here longer we'll see what we can do for you tomorrow." I about died! WHAT?, I have to wait til tomorrow to see if I can sleep? I'm nursing this baby every 2 hours, so it's not like I can go home. Plus I didn't have a change of clothes, so I wore (AND SLEPT) in the same outfit the whole week! yuck! Luckily the next day I get the best nurse who brought in a chair that pulls out into a bed. I guess it was against the rules, but she didn't care and told me she was in charge, so no one could get mad at her.

Mitchell had 2 EEG's and they both came back normal. So epilepsy has been ruled out. They also had a pediatric GI doctor examine him. The doctors seem to think this is all caused by a severe case of reflux that has gone untreated. They started Mitchell on a very aggressive dose of meds with strict precautions to always have him upright. I was actually sad I didn't have a camera to show you the arrangements they had for Mitchell. He sleeps in a sling, that has him at about a 55 degree incline. So it almost looks like he's standing when he's asleep. I was also told he needed an excellent burping regimen. They ordered me "a wedge" for Mitchell to sleep on that should arrive by Wednesday. So 4 LONG days later I got to come home Friday night at 7:30 p.m.

I have a really nice sister and friends who took care of Reesa and Jansen while we were there, and even brought meals over for Jake and the kiddies. Kids under 5 aren't allowed to visit the PICU, so I just didn't get to see them. I missed them so much.

So we're home now and Mitchell is doing much better. He still cries LOTs, but overall is a different baby. After all, it took several months for this esophagitis to develop, it's going to take a few weeks to heal. He can focus his eyes, and has even tract a few times with his eyes. We no longer feel he is blind. He must have been in so much pain, he just needed to escape and the last thing on his list was to try and focus on anything. I've heard him coo and we've seen him smile maybe 3 times now... slowly but surely, he's coming along.

Tomorrow he has his appointment with the developmental doctor in Charlottesville. I'm hoping we can make a fun day out of it and maybe go to the apple orchards there too!