Day 28 in the hospital

It has been four weeks since we (Owen and I) first took James to the hospital in the Duluth. Since then we have been in one hospital or another except for when we were driving down to Fairview from Duluth. This afternoon I had to double check with someone to see what day of the week it is!

The last two nights James has had trouble tolerating his g-tube feedings. He gets all gassy and tight in the tummy and it obviously hurts--a lot. Today, the oncology docs and I were talking about it and I told them that it sort of reminded me of when we first got James' tube and were trying to figure out how best to supplement his eating to make sure he got enough calories. At that point, he didn't tolerate a lot of formula, though we could use some. We finally hit a balance of using formula for his night feedings and using milk with yogurt for his boluses during the day. All this time, he seems to tolerate what breast milk he does get with no problem.

So, I asked what they thought about working with James to eat more real food by mouth first to give his digestive system a chance to work back in to eating. The two doctors thought that would be a good idea, especially since it will be important for James to eat foods by mouth during the trip down to Georgia.

Please pray that James would tolerate what he is eating (a little cantaloupe, a little yogurt, a very little cheese tortellini...plus some other things the doctors chased up for us... both freely admitting that despite the dieticians, it is awful tough to find good, healthy food in a hospital!!) and continue progressing.

Dr. Steiner, the attending physician for the last couple of days, has been on the phone with Dr. Frank Keller, an former partner of hers who is now a pediatric hematologist/oncologist at Emory in Atlanta. He is excited about taking on James ;*); Dr. Steiner is sure we will love him.

Today, I was supposed to try to make a bus ride run to Target, but that kept getting delayed because the doctors got tied up in an unplanned procedure. When all was said and done, one the NAs was able to scare up most of what we were needing. So we should be pretty well set for a while.

Earlier today I was not too hopeful about making it to Atlanta next week. While I am still not too hopeful about getting all the way to Toomsboro for a short reprieve/visit, I am more hopeful about making it to Atlanta. We'll see what the Lord has in store for us.

This morning we talked to Vern and Katie and it sounds like they are resting some today while trying to get a few things done. Vern's back is sore and all are pretty tired (can you say 'stress'?), but they are happy to be settling in. Grandpa John got off to the airport okay and should be in Duluth this evening.

Hannah is feeling a little punk today, hopefully she'll be feeling better soon.

Be sure to post a comment if you want to see photos of the crew in GA. So far we only have three!!!

Love, Stephanie