Milestones
Mar. 15th, 2005 06:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lawnrrdLeo ate his first solid food ever at 6:30 AM today. It consisted of Gerber applesauce, gently (well, not so gently) seasoned with Tylenol with codeine elixir. That stuff tastes extremely nasty, so nasty that it took half a container of the applesauce make half a teaspoon of the medicine barely tolerable.
He was interested in the food, at least, and I think we got more than half of the dose into him. We have since learned that if we coat the end of a syringe in applesauce, he'll let us put it in his mouth long enough to give him his dose, which seems more reliable and efficient.
When we changed his dressing again this morning, it looked really bad, with a lot of faintly green gunk stuck to the pad, and more in his wound than we had seen previously. This concerned us, so we called the surgeon, who tried to reassure us.
Later on, Lauren changed the dressing again around midday and the wound looked clean. If it stays clean for a few days, then the surgeon will be able to stitch it closed again.
The regular pediatrician stopped by our apartment this afternoon. She said that the wound looked good, for what it is. She also said that Leo looked good—which is to say, happy (when not noticing the pain), alert (despite the drugs), strong, and immense. She wanted us to ask the surgeon why he was not having us irrigate the wound with saline, and we will during our scheduled appointment tomorrow. She also wanted us to start reducing Leo's dose of painkillers, which is fine with me because I found out this morning how much Lauren's been giving him, and it seemed a little too much. Or at least, it was more than I had been giving him.
Lauren and I are still both big messes. We're not getting much sleep, either of us. Lauren's constantly on edge, worrying about Leo. I'm anxious and drained from caring for the both of them. Things like feeding Leo and changing his diaper have become two-person tasks for the time being, so we can't really spell each other. I've been soothing my nerves by writing software, which will make all the sense in the world to some of you, and no sense at all to the others.
And it's just one day at a time.
He was interested in the food, at least, and I think we got more than half of the dose into him. We have since learned that if we coat the end of a syringe in applesauce, he'll let us put it in his mouth long enough to give him his dose, which seems more reliable and efficient.
When we changed his dressing again this morning, it looked really bad, with a lot of faintly green gunk stuck to the pad, and more in his wound than we had seen previously. This concerned us, so we called the surgeon, who tried to reassure us.
Later on, Lauren changed the dressing again around midday and the wound looked clean. If it stays clean for a few days, then the surgeon will be able to stitch it closed again.
The regular pediatrician stopped by our apartment this afternoon. She said that the wound looked good, for what it is. She also said that Leo looked good—which is to say, happy (when not noticing the pain), alert (despite the drugs), strong, and immense. She wanted us to ask the surgeon why he was not having us irrigate the wound with saline, and we will during our scheduled appointment tomorrow. She also wanted us to start reducing Leo's dose of painkillers, which is fine with me because I found out this morning how much Lauren's been giving him, and it seemed a little too much. Or at least, it was more than I had been giving him.
Lauren and I are still both big messes. We're not getting much sleep, either of us. Lauren's constantly on edge, worrying about Leo. I'm anxious and drained from caring for the both of them. Things like feeding Leo and changing his diaper have become two-person tasks for the time being, so we can't really spell each other. I've been soothing my nerves by writing software, which will make all the sense in the world to some of you, and no sense at all to the others.
And it's just one day at a time.
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no subject
Date: 2005-03-15 11:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-16 12:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-16 12:26 am (UTC)*hugs* I hope this won't last much longer. Take care.
no subject
Date: 2005-03-16 12:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-16 12:45 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-16 12:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-16 07:16 am (UTC)Re: the draining...it is unsettling but it is necessary to get the wound cleaned and all the germs out and if it had happened with the wound closed, it would have been an infection and would have been worse.
It sounds like he is making slow steady progress..good luck.
no subject
Date: 2005-03-16 04:16 pm (UTC)Thanks for your good wishes.
no subject
Date: 2005-03-16 03:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-16 05:56 pm (UTC)