Monday, February 29, 2016

Inpatient in Texas

Last Sunday, Aberdeen started exhibiting signs of having a stomach virus. We fiddled with her feeds to try to keep her hydrated, and while she did ok throughout the week, by Saturday it was clear that something was very wrong. Her breathing had become quite rapid and she was having trouble staying awake. 
We took her to the emergency room and were told fairly quickly that she would need to be admitted. Lots of labs were run and she was found to have astrovirus (a fairly common stomach virus) and EPEC (something that generally shows up in third-world countries...huh?). They also found some haziness on her chest X-Ray, suggesting either mild pneumonia or atelectasis (lung collapse). She was started on fluids to combat dehydration and antibiotics for the pneumonia/EPEC and moved to the peds floor. Dehydration is of particular concern for her due to her heart condition. If her heart gets too dried out, her risk of going into heart failure increases greatly. We did our best throughout the week, but ultimately, it wasn't something we could get ahead of at home.
She had a rough day yesterday, and just wasn't herself at all - super lethargic and unengaged. We heard some conflicting things about the previous night's chest X-Ray, but after review, they decided the initial assessment was correct. They weaned her IV fluids to Pedialyte through her G-tube, which she handled well, despite the ongoing diarrhea. 
We started her on a slow continuous feed of formula around noon today, gave her a break this evening, and are attempting her normal overnight feed tonight. She definitely perked up this afternoon and was acting much more like herself, thank goodness. I worry that we're moving too fast on her feed advancement and we'll see a return of her vomiting, but maybe she'll surprise me. 
Depending on how she does tonight, we'll continue to work on getting her back to her home feeding plan tomorrow. Hopefully we'll see an improvement in the diarrhea situation before being discharged. I really don't want to go home just to end up back here in a couple days. 
Praying she can kick all of this yuck soon and get back to being her smiley self full-time!

Sunday afternoon

Monday afternoon :)

Wednesday morning update: 
Abby is back on her home feeding regimen (back to formula though, no blended diet right now). Her diarrhea is still terrible, but since she's otherwise tolerating her feeds and acting fine, they're talking about letting us leave today. We'd have to follow up with her ped tomorrow and cardiologist on Friday. Honestly, I'm not sure how i feel about leaving with her gut still being such a mess. We'll see. I think she would appreciate an uninterrupted nap!

After getting a nice bed bath yesterday.

Girl likes her naps!

Wednesday afternoon update:
We're heading home with plans to follow-up with various folks over the next few days!



2 comments:

  1. Praying your sweet girl will feel better and be back home soon!!

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