Updates On Aspen

I put an update on Aspen in Split Nurses, just wanted to flesh it out a bit.

As I mentioned, she had a bloody stool. This was made more frustrating by how close she was to bottle feeding. She should get back to taking food instead of an IV this afternoon assuming all goes well.

When we showed up Tuesday they were just getting her IV put in. She complained very loudly about that but they seemed to get it in pretty easily. However, after she had settled down a bit, she had an apnic event. She basically stopped breathing at that point. Her O₂ levels dropped lower than I’ve seen so far. It was hard to watch and you could see the urgency that the nurses had stimulating her. She did come back, but it was probably the scariest event we’ve been witness to so far.

Now that she’s had this issue, they won’t have her in a onesie for a bit so that they can observer her stomach. This means swapping out her open crib for a warming bed. I guess she was feeling left out after sister got one. This one is much newer than sister’s was, however.

A Bottle!

OK, so the part above about getting to a bottle soon was written before my lunch visit. Before I got there for lunch, Sam sent me this picture of Aspen taking a bottle! She drank the whole 9ml in the bottle!

We’re pretty excited about that. Assuming she tolerates the neocate, that’s a big step in the right direction.

Struggling With IVs

We did have a bit of a strange experience during my visit at lunch today. Sam was holding both of them when I got there. I picked up Aspen and went to sit in the other chair. After sitting for a few minutes I noticed that my leg was starting to feel wet. I looked and noticed that the IV line had come disconnected from the actual IV catheter. Sam got the nurse to come in and a whole saga of getting another IV into her began.

While I was there Aspen’s and Elizabeth’s nurses each tried to get a new one in her. About the time I needed to leave they decided to call someone else. This was about 12:45 PM.

Also, she had a pretty significant emesis when they were starting the IV process. Not a great sign after her first feed of neocate.

According to Sam there was Aspen’s nurse and Elizabeth’s nurse (I was there for those) and then nurse practitioner, then the nurse lead, then the doctor, and then another round.

Sam stuck around until they had the IV in. She messaged me at 2:06 PM to say that they had it in. That’s a lot of work. It’s so nice when they no longer have IVs and we only have to worry about stick on sensors and leads.

Pictures

Extra Bits

Most of you are probably already aware, but I did setup a Facebook group. That allows me to automate delivery of these a little and allows you to opt-in to getting updates. That gives you two choices for “subscribing” to updates. You can use the form at the bottom of each post to sign up for email updates (or the link in the menu). If you prefer Facebook, you can find it pretty easily on Facebook or by clicking the button in the menu of this page.

Have a great day!