Totally Tubular!

Well, it is day 3 of being in the hospital. Camden was supposed to be home by now, sleeping in his own bed. But his discharge was put back to tomorrow. I'll explain below, but first a quick recap. I stayed with him on Thursday night, the worst night. He slept for about 6 hours total, waking every 2 hours in crying pain but got morphine and lortab. Once the pain meds kicked in, he drifted back to sleep, with his legs bent up in the air (his little way of relieving some of the tension from his abdomen). Friday morning he awoke at about 7:15 am, without crying. I went over to his bed and after saying good morning to him, got a beautiful smile out of him. That's when I knew things were going to be okay and felt the power of so many prayers. Since we noticed him feeling better, Daddy took him for a wagon-ride around the unit and he seemed to really like getting out of his room for a while. Camden started taking clear liquids but continued w/ the IV food. He had ice cream, juice, tried jello but some of this he threw up. Cousin Jake and Aunt JoJo came back with gramps in the afternoon and Jake brought Camden a "sticker" he'd made for him. Daddy spent the night with Camden on Friday night. Camden slept better this night, but it started out roughly, as he had to get another IV started which was hard for Daddy and I to watch (lots of blood got everywhere). This night was also his first trial of the tube feeding. The Dr. wants Camden to go home using 45 ml/hr of Pediasure. The nurse got a little too ambitious (probably just wanted to see us meet our discharge deadline) and after an hour of 25 ml, bumped it up to 45. Camden finally drifted off to sleep at around 12:30 but awoke an hour later, having thrown up all the Pediasure that was given him. Daddy helped the nurse change Camden's gown and sheets and afterwards he slept for 5 straight hours. This morning Camden was onto solids, keeping down his grits and cereal bar. He also tried (in no particular order) pineapple tidbits, strawberries, broccoli and cheese, sweet tea, oatmeal cream pie, biscuit, and had a better time holding down food towards the end of the day. He was feeling even more adventurous today--I could tell he wanted some excersize when he was on my lap and started marching on air (his signal that he wants to walk). So I took him for a little walk that ended up being around the whole unit! I joked w/ his nurse that he is now an elopement risk. Of course after the end of this lap Mommy's back was killing her so we had to stop. He didn't like that one bit and started fussing. The home medical equipment guy came just in time and offered a good distraction. We now have the feeding tube pump and all the needed supplies to go home with and he gave us a tutorial on how to use it. Camden took a brief nap, just long enough for us to watch the rest of the FSU game. At 10:00 I gave Camden his tube feeding (this time 30 ml/hr). Both of us had tried it before w/ medication but this was the first time flying solo w/ the Pediasure. The nurse looked over my shoulder and Kevin and I did everything from memory. It really is going to be very easy. We just have to find out how to do it without waking CamCAm up. So Daddy and Camden are there now and hopefully everything is going well with the tube feeding. I think he'll sleep great tonight. We're not sure of the exact discharge criteria, but one of them was getting the equipment...check! I think the Dr. wants Camden to tolerate one good night of tube feeding. Hopefully that's tonight. Thanks again for your love and support. We've just felt the presence of God all around us through this difficult time and it's carried us through. The nurses and techs at Wolfson's have been incredible and the facility itself is so much fun. But we're so ready to be home--especially CamCam!!