So, now that we have finally had time to settle back in, wash some clothes, clean up a little, and enjoy living under one roof again, I thought I would post. Kathryn finished her round of antiobiotics on Tuesday morning and they repeated the spinal tap on Tuesday afternoon. She did great through the tap and the results were clear meaning no signs of meningitis remaining. We stayed at the hospital until Friday morning because the doctors were helping us get the Viagra approved by insurance for Kathryn. Apparently men can walk into their doctor and ask for some and have no problems getting it approved through insurance, but getting the prescription for babies for the original purpose that the medicine was invented is a little more difficult. Apparently, the prescription would have been close to $500/month if not approved. I told Greg that I might have to consider a job on a street corner in order to afford that, but since I had now had two babies that I might not even be able to rake in that much per month. Fortunately for us, I won't have to go that route. Kathryn has Alabama medicaid due to her ELBW (extremely low birth weight) so Medicaid approved it for her. (Thankfully!!)
Before leaving the hospital Kathryn had a hearing screen on Tuesday since she had been on an antibiotic course. One of the side effects for antibiotics in small babies is that it can cause degrees of hearing loss. Well, Kathryn passed in one ear and failed the test in her other ear. The audiologist then did a second test (called a tympanogram?) and determined that Kathryn's eardrums were recessed. So they came back Thursday to repeat and found that she now had fluid behind her ears. They don't think it would have been an ear infection since she had just been on two big guns of antibiotics. So we will be following up with the audiology clinic at Children's in 4 weeks. Basically, their thought is that if she still has fluid at that time, they will see us again a few weeks later, and if she still has fluid at that time, they make insert tubes in her ears. If I remember correctly with Maddie, getting tubes may limit the amount of ear infections that Kathryn would have so that might be a blessing for her. Anyway, we will know more about that later. We left the hospital with Kathryn on eight medications this time and with follow up appointments with audiology, cardiology, pulmonology, pediatrician, newborn follow up clinic for babies born in Alabama under 1000 grams (Kathryn was 400 grams at birth), and the eye specialist for followup on her ROP surgery done in the NICU. It will be a busy month for us and those are just the first round of appointments. Then there will be follow ups to the follow ups!
Three wonderful things happened while Kathryn was in the hospital. 1. She found her hands and now inserts her whole fist into her mouth. 2. She found her smile. 3. She sleeps through the night - she takes a bottle at 10:00pm and then sleeps until 6:00am.
Here are a few pictures from our hospital stay.
This is Kathryn's first hospital room on the night she was admitted at 1:00 am.
Her first tub bath!
Finding her hands!
Maddie and Kathryn in Kathryn's second hospital room (after her short stay in Special Care).
Kathryn and her prayer quilt!
Kathryn and her contagious smile!
Faithfully, Kelly
4 comments:
Great pictures! Thanks for sharing!
What a precious smile, it could melt anyone's heart! I am sure that her sister is delighted to be able to interact with her some. You have two beautiful girls!
P.S.-- I am so glad that you don't have to go the street corner route.:)
What heartbreakers the girls are - just like their Auntie Donna and Great-Grandmother, of course! Seriously, the pictures are adorable and Maddie is so proud of little sister.
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