McKay-Dee

Monday afternoon the PCMC NICU NNP (Ha!) Translation: Primary Childrens Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Neonate Nurse Practitioner. Anyway, she told me they had several babies being admitted, and since we had requested a transfer we were first on the list to move due to them needing beds for the incoming babies. She told me the Life Flight team was ready to move him once they got my consent. I had a minor panic attack until she reminded me that the team who moves individuals to and from PCMC is called the Life Flight and he was going to be transferred by ambulance. He did amazing during the transfer and slept the whole time. It was so nice to be back at McKay-Dee and Dr. Schaffer even jokingly told us 'Welcome Home' He was in a different room than he was originally, which was nice because it was in a section with no other babies. Solomon and I took turns holding and talking to him when he was awake.





Tuesday they ran some tests and decided they wanted to continue with the 'darby' as his hematocrit was at a 30. They also decided to discontinue his sodium and iron levels to see how he would do. It was so nice to be able to sit and hold him for hours without so many people coming in and out all the time. OTPT did her assessment and decided it was time to try and see how he would do eating on his own, and Solomon was even able to join us. Max was able to latch, suck, and swallow for several minutes while remembering to breathe. He would suck and swallow a few times, then stop and breath--almost like he was panting- then suck and swallow again. Even when he choked he didn't dsat like he had been doing before, and went right back at it until he got the hiccups. Wednesday they moved him back to his original bedspace and it was the strangest deja-vu feeling to walk in the room. The feeling passes quickly though, as he is the only baby in a bed instead of incubator. I want to walk around to all the mom's and hug them.





Since then Max's has continued to improve by leaps! His oxygen has gone from 2 liters/minute to 0.2 liters/minute as of today. He has done both nursing and bottle feedings and doing better and better each time. Today I started nursing him, and then shift change (I HATE shift change) began so I had to leave, the nurse noticed he was still trying to eat and sucking on his blanket so she gave him a bottle and HE FINISHED IT!!!!





Primary Childrens is a phenomenal place to be, and I will forever be in-debt to them for literally saving my son's life. I know there is no possible way for me to Thank everyone who we worked with and who took care of Max.

However, McKay-Dee has made my heart lighter and they are a wonderful hospital as well. I've experienced them before (with S who had surgery a year ago) and have nothing but good things to say about them. We are so close to coming home I can almost feel it! I'm still hoping for a June date to come home, but it may be July and I have made peace with that.





He is weighing in at 5lbs and 13.8 oz tonight and still doing great at 0.2 liters of oxygen, I'm hoping he comes home without oxygen support, but I'm not holding my breath, and I'm trying to prepare for it. He has improved so dramatically the last 6 days that I can't wait to see what he does next week.





Again, I cannot express my gratitude enough for all the prayers, concern, love, kindness, generosity, and support we have received from everyone. Thank you from the very bottom of my heart.