a guy and a bee
a collection of random thoughts and ideas from me, her, and sometimes us
Category Archives: health
Tuesday: BBA
Progress today. He is being weaned off the dopamine and his bilirubin treatment is complete. His blood sugar still will not cooperate and his platelet count is still quite low, most likely requiring another transfusion. He had an ultrasound of his liver this morning to assess for issues (which could potentially explain his platelet issue). Hematologist is being consulted to discuss his platelet count. Endocrinologist is being consulted to evaluate the function of his pancreas (which could provide answers on his blood sugar).
He is much more active today and quacking like a duck, both signs that he may be feeling a little better. He is continuing to excrete fluid and had two stools which means his body is starting to process out all the gunk in it.
Off to see BBB now. Will update on him late this afternoon.
The last four days.
For those of you used to our blog, we are taking a turn . . .
The twins arrived on Thursday, July 2, 2015 – at 36 weeks and 3 days. They had been doing well up until Thursday, but at a routine pre-natal appointment, the doctor had significant concern for aggressive onset pre-eclampsia, kidney issues, and concern for the twins movement (they were very much out of space). BP was sent to the hospital for testing and it was decided quite quickly that it was time to get the twins out.
Baby A (BBA) arrived at 2:53pm weighing 6 pounds, 1 ounce and measuring 18.5 inches long. Baby B (BBB) followed at 2:54pm weighing 4 pounds, 14 ounces and measuring 18 inches long. There was immediate concern for BBA due to several factors including muconium in his lungs impeding his ability to breath, exceedingly high blood pressure, and undocumentably low blood sugar. BBB initially appeared to be ok, but his blood sugar quickly dropped. Both were taken to the NICU.
BBA was transferred to John’s Hopkins NICU at 4:00am on Friday when it was determined that his health needed additional specialty care. BBB remained (and remains) at Howard County General Hospital’s NICU for care.
Now to individual updates on what has happened with each since Friday . . .
BBA: On Friday, BBA was placed on a ventilator at 100% oxygen (normal is 21%), his blood sugar continued to be astronomically low, his blood pressure was too high, he was retaining all liquids (and not excreting), and his platelet level was very low. He received a feeding tube to begin to provide nutrients. Over the course of the next four days (Friday through Monday), he had many steps forward and back, but he was taken off the ventilator and breathing tube, which was inserted when the ventilator was off, the feeding tube was removed, his blood sugar was remaining more stable, and he was excreting which was significantly reducing the amount of fluid on his person. He, therefore, was using less energy to breathe and his blood pressure was going down, signaling less stress on his heart. He was still receiving platelets and they were repeating his eccocardiogram to reassess concern for his right ventricle. He will remain in the NICU until he can come off of all of the machines and eat consistently; he could potentially start taking “real food” by the end of the week.
BBB: While seemingly fine at birth, shortly after BBB’s blood sugar also plummeted, granting him a direct pass to the NICU as well (and a look at his brother). BBB has had a difficult time keeping his blood sugar up and consistent and as a direct result, cannot maintain his body temperature – he is using so much energy on blood sugar issues that his temperature keeps dropping. He was placed on an IV and after two attempts to wean him off of it over the next four days, as of Monday he was IV free and being tested to see if he could maintain a consistent body temperature and blood sugar level while in an isolette for 12 hours before being moved to a crib. He will need to stay in the crib in open air for 24-36 hours without any dips in blood sugar or temperature before consideration of discharge (so not before Wednesday).
We want to thank everyone for all of their support and offers to help. We are doing ok now – just trying to spend time with the boys and @littlepund who is a bit confused by all of this. We will keep everyone updated via our blog and let you all know how you can help. Generally we are spending mornings with BBA, afternoons with BBB, and evenings with @littlepund. We will post updates throughout the day as we get them.
Thank you.
ZP, BP, @littlepund, BBA, and BBB
no complaints
it’s funny how some days we complain about little things. last week I had a cold and it seems to be lingering a little. that’s neither here nor there as my point was as I was sitting in the Jerry’s Subs and Pizza in Owen Brown, a lady walked by me and I said “hi, how’s it going?” she said “hi, good” back, walked 2 steps turned around and asked if I really cared because she would sit down and tell me. since I tend to believe half the people I see are criminals, I politely declined and told her “maybe tomorrow.” haha. she hadn’t even met me for more than a split second and was all ready to lay her world of problems on me. a minor interaction that was more of a courtesy and a way being polite.
what did she really have to complain about? who knows and I wasn’t interested in finding out. it didn’t actually make a difference to me as we all have our problems but do we really to talk to complete strangers about them? I guess I won’t be asking random people “how it’s going” again. I know I don’t really have anything to complain about. I could complain that work has been slow but then again I am not unemployed so maybe it’s not bad after all. so since we aren’t complaining, I hope you are doing well. bee got a cold after I did so we are working on getting better and being happy with what we have. so why did I write a post about this or is it I am complaining about having no complaints? guess i’ll let someone else decide because i’m not really sure.
thankful
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! This time of the year everyone writes posts about what they are thankful for and I could do the same. I can tell you that I am thankful for my wife, family, friends, having a job, and all those great things. And I am thankful for those things, but lately I am just thankful when I fell and fractured my ribs two Sundays ago, I didn’t hit my head.
I was home alone and my wife had been out of town all week when, as we have been calling it, I went splat. Slipped went aerial and came down on my ribs on the side of the tub. So as of lately and as I continue to recover, I am thankful I didn’t hit my head as well as the fact that my dad drove me to the hospital.
It was “The Great Fall of 2011” and it wasn’t glorious but wasn’t the worst it could have been.
Hope everyone has a joyous holiday today and takes care. If you see me out, pass on the hug as my ribs are still pretty sore!
(The attached photo is what’s left of the bruise on my arm. My back didn’t bruise surprisingly.)
hocoblogs@@@
well that was a fun vacation
from atop the great smokeys!
so for the last year or so, my wife and i have been talking about a cross country trip this year and we had settled on a 3 week adventure and she had all the plans put together. after 3 days into the trip, i was having bad anxiety issues and we decided to turn around. we had made it from maryland to elon, nc and then to just out of knoxville, tn where we stayed in seiverville, which is just a few minutes from the great smokey mountains. our next destination was memphis.
weird! wonder works in seiverville
it was a frustrating experience because i thought i had gotten past my anxiety issues and would be fine. apparently not. as i have explained it others, it’s like walking on one leg when you are having anxiety flare ups and for me, the nausea related to it. you can limp around, but you know you aren’t right and you can’t fix it like you hope you would be able to. had i really wanted to lose 10 or 15 pounds by not eating properly, it would have been a good way to do it, but would have only gotten worse and me being miserable wouldn’t been enjoyable for the wife either. so we decided to turn around and went to the Outer Banks instead. having vacationed there all my life and a free place to stay allowed us to get to a place we knew would be okay. after a few days, i was feeling better and we enjoyed a week and a half at the beach. since it was a joint decision to not continue, i don’t feel like it was the wrong decision, but disappointed it’s how it ended.
sunset at the OBX
when we started out, we said we were going to go as far as we could go and that was what we did. ultimately, i am annoyed, frustrated, sad, disappointed, upset, and happy that we tried. i am disappointed for her more than anything because we were supposed to visit her dad in nebraska over this coming weekend for father’s day and that would have been a great time for her to see him since we last saw him in october. he will be out here july so we will at least get to see him soon.
pass and stow
upon returning to maryland from the beach, we took a couple day trips to annapolis and philadelphia to see America’s first Zoo as well as the Liberty Bell. if you haven’t seen the Liberty Bell, it’s smaller than you might expect but still worth a visit!
unfortunately, it’s back to work and telling them the same story. at least someone told me they were happy i was back.
i will post some more pictures of our trip and the fun adventure in the great smokey mountains, the Appalachian trail, gambling in Cherokee country, the weird towns of seiverville and gaitlinburg and more.
hey there
a guy and a bee 