Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Gerard back in the hospital

Today Gerard needed to go to the doctor because he's been spitting up/vomiting and had some serious, serious dirty diapers and a lack of wet diapers. I spoke with the doctor on the phone, and after another episode of him spitting up, decided he needed to go in to the urgent care clinic. A half hour later and a test to confirm that he was getting dehydrated - resulted in him getting admitted to the peds unit. He can't go into the NICU with a virus that's contagious, and we suspect it's rotavirus. His weight was 10 lbs. and then dropped again an hour later. I felt like he wasn't eating properly yesterday and today, and I'm glad I went with my instinct and took him in. They stuck the poor fella 7 times before giving up and sticking the IV in his head! I didn't even know that was possible. They had a NICU nurse come in because he was so dehydrated to get a good stick, and even she had trouble. Of course, she remembered Gerard... She couldn't get over how big he's gotten! He'd be at least a pound bigger had he not gotten this virus.
Needless to say, it's been another gut-wrenching day. It's hard to be home without him, and very strange to not have him here with us tonight. At least he'll get pumped up with fluids tonight.
More tomorrow. Or, whenever I get a chance to update. For now, sleep...

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi I've been following Gerard's blog when I don't have a chance to see Michael in the hallway. Sorry to hear he is in the hospital again - hope he gets better soon.

I wanted to give you a recommendation for his dry skin. Nate had supper dry skin and eczema. We used Cetiphil cleanser(not the lotion) for baths and as a moisturizer. You just put some on then wipe off the excess with a towel, leaving a thin layer. Now that he is bigger we use Dove sensitive skin body wash for baths. These are based on the recommendation of his dermatologist.
Michele