Fifteen Months

Peter is 15 months old today! I can't believe it. He is walking, desperately trying to talk, only taking one nap a day, and he doesn't take the bottle at all. This weekend, Tom and I kept watching him play and realized he is truly not a baby anymore - he's a toddler. Seeing your children grow is so bittersweet........

Back to my "blog therapy" - the second week of March last year, we hit a big setback. All turned out okay, but it could have been much worse. Another example of God's mighty hand upon Peter. Here's a recap:

March 9 - A pretty quiet day overall, however this day Peter began to throw up periodically. This was a problem that stayed with us for a long time. He was doing pretty well with eating, he just couldn't seem to keep it down.

March 10 - This day Peter was moved up to the 8th floor and out of ICU. We were thrilled. One of the nurses told us this was our last step before home. Peter continued to have trouble keeping his food down.

March 11 - Another fairly quiet day with still the continued problem of Peter keeping food down.

March 12 - Peter was very sleep this day, but other than that, showed no signs of anything wrong. Late in the evening, the nurse came in to take his temperature and it was over 104 degrees - very scary. It had been awhile since I had experienced that wave of shock and grief, and it overtook me again. They were able to get his temp down with Tylenol, but it was a rough night for us all.

March 13 - In the morning, Peter had a series of tests (EKG, echo, X-ray), to determine the source of his fever. Also, they pulled his Broviak (central line) because the tests came back normal and that was their best guess as to the source. Poor Peter had a bad day. He was messed with all day and they had to put an IV line in since they pulled out the central line. In the afternoon, the results from his blood cultures came back showing positive for an infection in the blood (our worst fear). They immediately started him on three different "powerhouse" antibiotics.

March 14 - Peter had a better day this day. He showed no more signs of the fever. The only issue we were dealing with was feeding. Peter was still throwing up fairly often. The Dr.'s (and us) felt this was largely due to all the mucus still in his lungs that was trying to work its way out. They began a strenous series (every two hours) of breathing treatments to try to get this mucus cleared up.

Later in the week, we met with the infectious disease Dr. a few times and she determined that the blood infection was probably the result of that central line. The germ had been isolated, and it was one that we all carry in our "gut." This germ had travelled through Peter's central line to his heart and infected his bloodstream. Thankfully, they caught it early, pulled out that line and treated it. Again, this could've been MUCH more serious. More amazing grace......