Love and other drugs

We don't normally do anything fancy for Valentine's Day. I've been with my husband for 18 years and I would much rather do something else with money than going out to eat or buying flowers that croak after a few days just because it's the 'day of love'. We try to get out on regular dates already so, we focus on the kids on this day and make it fun for them!

The big kids valentines hidden in plain sight.

Liam still has a fever and a nasty cough that sends him into fits of nonstop coughing for upwards of 20 minutes. It's heartbreaking. I got so upset that I finally called after hours for his ped's office and happened to get his pediatrician! She could hear him coughing and said she wanted to see him since we are leaving this weekend. So, I brought him in early on lovie day and we spent all morning there. She was running behind and when she finally got in to see us, Liam wouldn't cooperate. But from what she could tell he sounded clear in his lungs. But because his cough was so dry she had us do a nebulizer treatment. It seemed to soften up his cough some so she sent Liam home with his own brand new machine for Valentines day!  

He didn't like it.

He fought me the entire 10 minutes he had it on. It's gotten only slightly better since then.

At the pharmacy we received an entire box full of nebulizer drugs. Enough to keep him treated every 3-4 hours round the clock until this weekend. I think she means it when she says she wants him better for Sunday.

We rounded out dinner the way we do every year- a heart shaped meatloaf, heart shaped bacon, and a red velvet cake in the shape of what else? A heart.

Stem Cells in VLBW/Very Low Birth Weight Babies

      In a new study presented at the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine's annual meeting, The Pregnancy Meeting ™, in Dallas, Texas, researchers have reported that early transplantation of human placenta-derived mesenchymal stem cells into the lateral ventricles of neonatal rats with birth-related brain damage is possible, and that the donor cells can survive and migrate in the recipient's brain. The study was designed to have the rat's brain damage mimic brain injury in infants with very low birth weight.

 Here is the article in full.

This is encouraging news! My only concern is where the placental mesenchymal cells are coming from. It doesn't say and if it is from aborted babies then I would not want to be a part of that. But if it is from donated placenta than this would be very exciting news and give hope to the moms who experience what we do that maybe the severe brain injuries in micropreemies will be a thing of the past some day.

A guessing game.

What happens when your kid is sick? You want to take care of them right? You want to make them feel better? Kiss their boo boos, tell them it's going to be ok? But I can't do that very well for Liam. Nothing feels worse as his mom than watching him cry, get angry, wipe out from exhaustion and then do it all over again and I have no idea why or how to help.

Being non verbal sucks. He can't tell me what he feels like, what hurts, if he's hungry... I just have to guess.

He's been running a fever since yesterday and it's been pretty steady and is preventing him from really sleeping. He can't get into a deep sleep. He spent all last night fussing and whimpering. He also has this dry cough...a very dry cough. I know how I feel when I have been sick with a cough like that so I assume his abs are sore and his throat is scratchy. But, I don't really know. I'm just guessing!

Oh- And did I mention he's throwing up all over the place?

I'm currently keeping him on a regular dose of Advil and keeping him hydrated with water.  The only silver lining is that he is so dry in his mouth that he is actually enjoying drinking water again.

He has gone all winter with no illnesses. He's been doing great and luckily he has a great immune system so we don't worry too much about germs or therapists coming in and out of the house.

Thursday I took him to Dr. Kid to get our prescription for HBOT (we leave Sunday) and they gave him the rest of his vaccines that were due (did you know they moved the 5 year shots to 4 years??) and within 24 hours he was running this fever.

It was odd too because his feet were freezing on Friday morning. You could feel them through his socks. We even had him in the bed covered in the comforter and they were still cold. We just couldn't get his feet warm.  I knew it was bizarre but I didn't think too much of it. Liam was in a decent mood and him having frozen feet didn't alert my radar that he was coming down with something even though it was really weird.

That afternoon big brother said, "Mom, I think Liam has a fever."  Sure enough, it was almost 101 degrees.

So, I'm upset because he's been so healthy, bothered that he picked something up from the ped's office, or that he's had a fullblown reaction to a vaccine (not likely but still, the way he got sick was bizarre).

I do try to be thankful in all things and appreciate the fact that he is getting sick this weekend versus next when we will be traveling for HBOT.

But I just pray this doesn't last long, because he's miserable and that makes me miserable. And I can't get anything done.

Convince me

I've kept fairly quiet about the fact that I will be leaving for 3 1/2 weeks on the 19th. Liam and I are headed just north of Charlotte for another round of hyperbaric oxygen treatments.

Why have I kept quiet? I don't know.

Probably because I haven't been 100% convinced yet to go.

It's not that I don't want to go. I do! I saw the improvements with Liam the last time he went. And his therapists were able to document his improvements themselves. So, I know the hbot helps. I know it promotes healing for the injured areas of his brain. And I want to take him again.  But for several reasons I've been on the edge about whether we should go right now.

*I don't like being away from the family for so long-there is never a good time to go.
*It leaves two homeschoolers at home without the 'teacher' until their dad gets home.
*Schedules have to be altered.

*We don't even have the money to go.

And now I just sound like a whiner.

But I sent off the paperwork today anyway and am just praying my way through these issues. God is bigger than my issues. I'm praying for specific healing for Liam with his motor control in his arms, better language, and some head control because I still believe God is able.