El hospital

So much for not being in the hospital. We're back!

Elijah and I were having a nice, quiet day by ourselves at home when he decided to scare the CRAP out of me. I had just fed him lunch and laid him on the ground to change his diaper. He looked like he was a bit cold and shivered and then a split second later he was PURPLE and screaming. I picked him up and tried to warm him up but his color just kept getting worse and he started getting listless and acting funny. After 10ish minutes of this, I finally called 911 and the paramedics came and by that time he was fine (of course). They left and we called Dr. G and he told us to get to the hospital right away.

We spent the first 2.5 hours in the ER, which was horrible for our little man. They poked and xrayed and tested pretty much the entire time and he was MAD. If anyone with a blue coat even walked into the room, he screamed his head off. His sats are running really low. When he's mad, they're running between 25-50%. When he's content, he's running between 50-65%.

Dr. G stopped in briefly but was on his way to the airport (No! He's leaving us again!) and said that he wants to have Eli monitored here in the hospital for probably 48 hours. We are hoping that his low sats and the purple spell today are a result of this cold that he's hanging onto. They ran every test under the sun downstairs so hopefully we can rule things like RSV out. So far we know he does not have an ear infection and he does not have a bladder infection.

Right now we are back up to our usual 3rd floor spot, watching the snow fall outside! I made Dr. G promise that we wouldn't have to deal with nurses coming in through the night to check vital signs and waking him up constantly, so hopefully he can actually get some sleep tonight. Dan is feeding him right now and then we're going to try to put him to sleep. He is SO TIRED.

I think we will get to see Dr. Moga tomorrow and hopefully he'll give us an idea about whether or not we should reschedule surgery or not. NO RESCHEDULING!! We are praying that this is just a cold and that it's on it's way out. I forgot to mention that E's temp has been pretty high all day (as high as 101.8) but now it is back down to normal, thank GOD.

Ok, off to baby duty. Please pray for our boy! Thank you for checking in.

From the horse's mouth

Dr. Gremmels called me back right away this morning THANK GOD. I wasn't up for another day of totally freaking out (now it will be a day of only mildly freaking out). He said Dr. Wright had filled him in on what happened over the weekend and I asked him what he thought of those 30s, 40s and 50s sats we saw on Saturday night. He said that as long as he was steadily in the 60s while sleeping, he isn't worried. Pulse oximeters (the devices that measure blood-oxygen saturations) lose accuracy once they go below 60%. Basically, a 39% reading is the same as a 59% reading. Dr. Wright said basically this same exact thing to us on Saturday, but (sorry, Dr. W) hearing it from Dr. G carried more weight.

So now I'm not so freaked out about those really low sats. That's good because that was one of my main worries. Dr. G said that since Elijah has had a cold, he's not in a rush to get him into surgery. He wants to talk to Dr. Moga and see what the schedule for the end of the week is like, but he feels like the 15th will be just fine for a surgery date.

The only thing Dr. G sounded even slightly worried about was the fact that Elijah gets more lethargic and more purple in the evenings. If this gets increasingly worse tonight, we're supposed to call him tomorrow. If it doesn't get worse, we're supposed to call him on Wednesday. From there we will decide what the plan will be.

I wonder if the doctors who know our little ones so well understand how important their opinions are to us. I feel so much better after talking to our beloved Dr. Gremmels. I think he should move in with us! He can bring his family, too, that's fine. We'd be nice and cozy and we could call ourselves the Pormmels.

My heart is still breaking for Helena's parents. I can't imagine what they must be feeling right now. If you wouldn't mind, say a prayer for PEACE for both of them!

Whole milk comes from cows

We are watching The Wiggles right now, and have been watching some sort of annoying children's show since 5:00. Elijah did not sleep well at all last night. There is too much to look at and too many noises. Dan and I got maybe a few hours of sleep, all pieced together. We both had crazy weeks, him at home with a sick baby all week and me with a stressful week at work, so we are beyond exhausted.

So Elijah is baffling everyone. Since we got here last night, his sats have been all over the place. When we got here yesterday, they were running anywhere from 36-68% with oxygen. While he slept, with mostly no oxygen, he was running between 60-74%. This morning lying in our laps, he has been in the 40s without oxygen and in the 50s with oxygen. Now, sitting in the crib playing with toys and no oxygen, he's running 57-61%. I DON'T GET IT!

We have absolutely no idea what the doctors are going to say about this. It's a good sign that he was high (for him) and steady through the night!

And wow, he has been SO CLINGY with Daddy. Dan cannot even leave the room without him freaking out. Last night, after getting poked and xrayed and being quite upset, he was in my lap still whimpering a bit. Dan left the room and Elijah looked at me like WHERE IS HE GOING and then gave me a pouty lower lip and said, "BABA!" (Dada) and looked toward the door and started crying. It was so cute! His first call out to one of us! I am totally chopped liver right now, by the way. I'm trying not to take it too personally.

Ok, one funny story. The nurse we had when we first got here last night asked if we fed Elijah formula still. I said, "No, he drinks cow's milk now." She said, "Oh, we don't have that here! There's a grocery store down the street. Would they have it there?" Dan and I looked at each other, confused. We said, "Uh, yeah, I think they have whole milk at the grocery store." She was like, "Oh! We have whole milk here!" Hmmmmmm.

We'll update again when we get the full scoop. Thanks so much for the prayers, everyone. We appreciate it so much!