Friday, June 22, 2007

~HOME!!~

After a 6 week stay, Noah is finally home again and doing very well. He finished his 6 weeks of antibiotics for his bone infection this afternoon. He had actually been discharged last tuesday and we were going to finish his antibiotics at home. However, Noah had other plans, and decided to pick that day to come down hard with a combination of a bronchial virus, a small pneumonia and asthma. He had some very rough days and nights where he ended up in respiratory distress a few times and almost got moved to PICU, but he responded fairly well to the ventolin masks. On Friday he was needing masks every 30 minutes to an hour, but over the weekend he slowly improved and his smiles have returned. So we were finally able to get out of hospital today before Noah caught anything else.
Because of our family history of asthma, it is likely that Noah does have asthma as well, so we now give Noah flovent through an aerochamber twice a day at home. He also needs anoxyparin (a blood thinner) twice a day for another 2 months to completely clear up his blood clot. Unfortunately this has to be given by injections, which is no fun for any of us!
Noah was also having alot of trouble handling his TPN lipids in hospital. His triglycerides have been quite high, meaning his body is having a hard time metabolizing the fat. We are now only running the lipids five nights a week and 1/4 of the amount we were giving Noah before. Hopefully this will be enough to see some weight gain. He was also started on a new medication called carnitine. Carnitine is a natural substance that our bodies produce. It is important to the transport of fat into the mitochondria where it is turned into energy. The hope is that this will help his body metabolize fat better and help him GROW! Noah lost some weight through all his battles this spring. He was almost 12lbs, and is now hovering around 11lbs. Hopefully we will be able to make up some ground now that we are home and he is well again.
Once again, God has seen us through another difficult journey and we praise Him for the joy and laughter that Noah brings to our lives. Thank you to all who have supported our family again in so many ways these past few weeks as we have been in survival mode. We can't thank you all enough. And thank you again to the wonderful staff on CH5. You know we love you all like family!!

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nichole, I'm so glad that Noah is at home and doing well. PRAISE GOD! I pray that Noah stays healthy and may he continue to bring you those most perfect smiles (the ones that melt your heart ;-)).

Love you guys always!

~Rissa and family

The Hines Family said...

We are so excited that Noah is home. As always, we are praying for Noah and your whole family.

Brian and Melissa Hines

Jamie said...

Yay! I'm so happy for you guys!

I actually started to write you guys a letter this last week just to catch you up on our lives since I figured you (Nichole) haven't been able to check blogs or email, etc. in the hospital, but now I guess I won't have to do that :)

I do, however, have a thank-you card around here somewhere with some pics of the kids and I NEED to get that into the mail to you on of these days!

I hope you guys can have some respite from the hospital now for awhile and get a chance to enjoy the summer!

Jamie said...

Hi again - I realized that you guys probably don't have the link to our blog now that it's privatized so I'll send you an invitation to your email address. You can watch for it - some people have found the invitations in their junk box, so let me know if you have any problems getting it!

Trying to Love, Laugh & Live said...

We are so happy that Noah is home and that you can be a family together again. Our prayers are always with you...

In Christ we are bonded.

The Keowns said...

so glad to hear Noah is home! I hope you guys can enjoy the summer!

Nathan & Rosanna Toews said...

We are praying for you all! May abundantly huge buckets of joy, health and peace gush over you all. May God's love shine on you like all encompassing sunshine rays and may you feel his love for each of you in the people and nature around you. Enjoy being all together again!

Anonymous said...

Just dropping by to say hello! Hope all is well.

Love you all!

~Rissa and family