Friday, October 15, 2010

cupboards, closets, and isolation rooms

I know it isn't kosher to talk openly about poop, but oh well, poop is a huge focus in my life right now. Right now really the only thing Jacob is working on is eating (and getting over that stupid cold). The problem isn't that he doesn't want to eat (he acts like he is starving) the problem is tolerating the food. When he doesn't tolerate it means that he is vomiting or having diarrhea. That doesn't sound like a huge deal, but it would mean he's not absorbing anything, getting dehydrated, and it throw off his electrolytes which can be dangerous. In the hospital nurses and Dr's like to have measurements on everything, and that includes stool output. He has been having 9g/kg/day which is fine (20g/kg/day is where they get nervous and 30g/kg/day they stop feeding him). On Tuesday he had 25g/kg/day, so they didn't increase his feeds and just watched him to see how he would do. Wednesday he was at 18g/kg/day so they went up to 19mls/hr on his milk. Then yesterday he only had 8g/kg/day of stool (which I think might be a mistake, the nurse was really new and may have measured wrong). I'm hoping that Tuesday and Wednesday were just a fluke and that he will keep tolerating his food.
In other news, we were moved into a new isolation room yesterday. Remember Harry Potters cupboard under the stairs, it's kind of like that. It is very small and kind of dark. I honestly think it was a closet at one point. I was a little upset that they had moved us, and the nurse said "at least it's more private." I have been sitting by myself in a little room everyday for the last month. Why would privacy be a good selling point?

1 comment: