Lightly Salted

Albert is quite well and nothing dramatic has happened over the last two days.

All but one of our children are now down with chickenpox. Most of the children are still experiencing only mild symptoms but Isaak seems to be suffering more this time around. He is a big boy, he will get over it.

Albert has not fed well for a few days now, not taking a bottle at all or, even when he does, only taking 20mls or so and vomiting some back. The good news is that he has improved enough to increase his feeds and stretch them out to 4 hourly, taking about 96mls a feed now. This is still well below a normal child of his age and size, but it represents slow progress.

I have not posted twice in a night since Albert was born, but this post had to happen!

As I mentioned earlier today, I spoke to the nurses after they had consulted the disease control unit of the hospital.

I woke joyfully this morning with the knowledge that our quarantine for gastroenteritis is over and that, after I have finished my lectures today, I could finally visit Albert. It has been almost a week since we held him or even saw him with our own eyes and the strain is beginning to tell.

All reports we hear from Albert's nurses are very positive. He is still off the oxygen and is slowly, very slowly, improving his oral feeding.

This morning began with a change of plans. What was supposed to be a drive to the office to pick up some work turned out to be a lesson in what not to do when using jumper-leads to start your car in the pouring rain, followed by a nervous, puttering trip to the mechanic. I then spent an hour or so writing an article and preparation for lectures on my laptop in various five star locations (as you can see), as I was waiting for Susie to finish some chores and take me home.

Albert has started vomiting. In a baby so small and weak it is difficult to tell if he has any other of the tell-tale symptoms of the gastroenteritis bug that has been going through our household, but he has already lost the small amount of weight he put on earlier this week.

The hospital staff have, understandably, asked that no-one from our house enters the ward until 48 hours has passed since the last observed gastroenteritis symptom.

As I mentioned yesterday, Susie has come down with a spectacular bout of gastroenteritis. Apart from waking for violent and unpleasant symptoms, some slightly less dramatic requests for medication, and her usual routine of expressing milk for Albert, She has been sleeping through most of the last two days.

Albert travelled safely yesterday and has now settled back into the Special Care Ward. He has been keen to feed but has managed only small amounts before becoming too tired to continue. The main news of today is that the Paediatrician decided there was too much variety in the way the nurses responded to Albert's vital signs.

The issue is the nurses response to his oxygen levels.

Today was a big day for us. This morning we visited Albert briefly in the local hospital and finally saw him on his tummy. As we mentioned yesterday, the Cardiologist and Paediatrician had taken Albert off the oxygen to see how he would go. The oxygen tube was removed at 9:30am and, though he struggled on a few occasions, he managed to get through to 5:30pm before his blood oxygen saturation dropped too low to continue without assistance.

For those who missed it, I will reprinting my late night UPDATE on the previous post:

The Paediatrician and Cardiologist consulted late yesterday and decided that Albert is simply not doing well enough with his feeding and breathing and needs a new assessment. It seems the oxygen can inhibit the ailing heart in some way (although I have not yet discovered how) and were keen to remove the oxygen completely.