Paving new "Rhoads"

After numerous times of pressing the snooze button on my phone, I finally woke up to greet the sunny day today.  Before putting my phone down, I clicked on my "notes" app and opened up an old note titled "Our Amazing Gift."   I am not sure what drove me to open this random note that is way below many others, but I did.  This note was excitededly started after Vanessa and I found out we were pregnant last spring.  I made notes of exciting milestones that were occurring as we grew more confident about our positive pregnancy.  Milestones included the date of the positive pregnancy test, the ultrasound at 7 weeks to REALLY confirm it, and the fetal nuchal translusency exam at 11 weeks as well as a few other random notes about our exciting new journey.  I am not sure what drove me to jot these down as these moments at the time, were being cemented in my memory bank.  Maybe it was for this current moment,  to reflect what was then and what is now. These pre-blog notes eventually stopped in August as the road we were on changed and had to learn to pave new "Rhoads." 

Today nephrology increased his dialysate to 50 mL, a 5 mL jump from the day before.  This may not sound like much, but it is a lot on a tiny belly.  He seemed to tolerate it well until later today.  After his 3 pm feeding which he took mostly from the bottle, he indroduced us to a new voice, a high pitch screeching cry.  He was inconsolable for some time until we rocked him a certain way to settle him down.  To comfort him in the mean time, the nurse gave him Tylenol which was cleared by the NICU team previously for as needed dosing.  Leaving the hospital night we expressed to the nurse that we were concerned that the increase in fill volume was a little rushed; the nurse agreed.  For Channing to tolerate the increased volume, he should not have to be given Tylenol to tolerate it.  We hope nephrology can learn from this and clinically watch him the next few days to see if he improves with the fill volume.  The percentage of the dextrose was kept the same, 2.5 percent, as the fill increased.  Channing still has a good output of "urine."  

Another thing that "popped" up last night after we left.  Our nurse noticed a small hernia in is left lower abdomen.  She gently pressed on it to get an idea of what it was and possibly the severity of it.  It essentially disappeared for the time being, however the area will be carefully watched in the future.  Peritoneal dialysis can create hernia’s due to constant pressure in the abdominal cavity.  With treating his disease, many other health conditions may pop up, but we’ll address them IF we come across them.  Moreover, he will have blood tests next week to evaluate his thyroid treatment.

Hanging out with his Uncle Vic.