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Hi guys! This is Little Al...I'm getting really tired of having all these tubes and stuff
in me. So, I've been letting mommy and daddy know this, and also my nurses, and the
cardio guys, and they finally said they will come in tonight after their rounds and
close my chest up. So in the next hour or two (it is 6:30 pm CST right now) it will be
done, and mom and dad will do another update once they get back to their room.
They have been with me most of the day just waiting and waiting. I've been pretty
out of it, though. So...I am pretty excited about all of this, although when I get
excited or mad, mom and dad seem to freak out and tell me to calm down. I don't get
that. Just wait until I'm off of these machines and drugs, and they can't stop me
from getting mad! Then they will really be in for it! They have seen that I can get
mad, but they haven't seen me at my best!
So, check back late tonight or early tomorrow morning to get more news!
See you later alligators!
Little Al (via typing by my mommy)
P.S. Hey Steve-O, GO WOLVERINES!!
It's done! Little Al's chest is finally closed! We just got back from the hospital and
Little Al is doing GREAT! Of course, he is pretty well drugged up, so he is resting
veeerrryyy comfortable. They will start weening him off the sedatives tomorrow and
then start working on weening him off the ventilator. If all goes well, he could be
off the vent in a few days and then they can start working on feeding him so he can
grow big and strong!
Mom & Dad are a little tired, so we are signing off for tonight. I promise I will put
some more pics out here tomorrow night for all of you that are addicted to seeing
Little Al.... :~)
Ryan, Holly & family
Hi everyone! We had a good day again today! We slept in this morning after being at
the hospital until all hours last night. When we got there, we were told that Little Al
was moving. Although we didn't want to change rooms and nurses, it was a very good
thing!
Instead of having one nurse all to himself, there are now two babies for one
nurse, which doesn't sound nice, but it is because that means he doesn't need as
much care. And, the good part is that nurse Kris will be in Alan's room tomorrow!
After the move, they cut the morphine in half, and turned the vent way down,
too. When we got there for our late visit, he was breathing a lot of his own
breaths. Tomorrow morning he will be sprinting! No, not running around the
hospital as fast as he can, but being taken off the vent for an hour at a time to
see what happens.
If he does OK on the sprint, then we will be able to extubate him soon, and he
won't have to have that tube down his throat anymore!!
They also took one tube out of his nose, and put another one in to take food in!
This morning they started him on Pedialite, and then by this afternoon he was
getting breast milk through that tube. That was very exciting. He took to the
pedialite very well, the milk took some getting used to! Depending on how he
takes to eating, we will be feeding him by bottle when we come home, or through
the tube still. We will learn all that in the next week or two.
Just when we were getting ready to leave our old room, we introduced
ourselves to the mom of the little girl in the bed next to Alan's. We found out
that she also was born with a heart defect. All of a sudden a couple of weeks
ago, her heart just stopped working, and they are now waiting for a transplant.
Her name is Cassie, and she is a very sweet girl. Her mom is very strong, and I
feel for her. So, all of you who have been praying for us, please add a good word
in for Cassie for us. She's five years old and her body is shutting down. It is
very sad!
Before I forget, we thought we better let everyone who might not know who
Uncle Dave is. He is not REALLY our uncle, although he is enough a part of our
family, he might as well be. He worked at the funeral home with my dad
forever! At least since I was born, right Dave? Then he decided to live his
dream, and up and left us to move to Hawaii. So, Uncle Dave is signing the
guestbook all the way from the Aloha State! And yes, he IS as cool as he sounds!
One more thing for those of you reading the guestbook who don't know us that
well. Another person who is very important to us who has been signing the
guestbook is Big Al. If you haven't already figured it out, he is the one Little Al
is named after. He is Ryan's brother Alan. So, now you all know who Big Al is as
well as Uncle Dave!
Click here for today's photos.
Until tomorrow....well, you know...GO BLUE
With love,
Holly, Ryan, and family
Well, today was another wonderful day! Ryan had to make a call to work for a
meeting, so I (Holly) went to the hospital by myself for awhile. When I got
there, Nurse Kris told me that Little Al had been eating breast milk through
the tube all night, but they had quit it in the morning because he can't eat
anything within 4-6 hours of being extubated!!! How exciting that was to hear.
He had also been taken off of one of his diuretics, and a lot of the morphine
taken away.
I couldn't wait to go back to the hotel and tell Ryan! I did that, and after lunch,
we went back to the hospital to take our last pictures of Alan with the tube in
his mouth! Then, the cardio doc came in to take the tube out!
We had to leave while they took the tube out, but it only took about 10 minutes, and
they were done. He didn't like it while they were doing it, but boy did he like it when
they were done. So now, he has to learn to cough so they don't have to suction stuff
out of his throat and lungs all the time. He also has to learn to suck and swallow with
a pacifier so that we can start feeding him with the bottle.
If everything goes OK, we might be able to move out of the ICU by Friday. Not
promising that, but maybe!!
So, we all had a pretty big day today! And even though Little Al was taken off most
of his sedatives, he remained pretty calm throughout the rest of the day.
Tomorrow they will take the bandages off of his chest, and hopefully the chest tube
will come out, too!
So, the only bad news of the day is that Nurse Kris can't follow us out of the ICU.
She is head nurse tomorrow, so unless someone else volunteers for that job, she won't
be able to take care of Alan. Then, she's off until next Tuesday, and we hope to be
out of there by then!
I think that she deserves for us to put a plug in for her. Kris is a wonderful nurse!
First of all to be a nurse in a place like this takes a special kind of person! But, she is
just so cool. She really cares, and the job she does is above and beyond anything you
can imagine. Even though she had to do some pretty uncomfortable and yucky things
to the baby, if she came to talk to him, he would calm right down for her. Even he
realizes what a special person she is.
Kris, if you read this page, thank you for everything you did for us this last week or
so. Ryan and I both admire you for the job you have, and the special person you are!
We do, however, think you really need to get out more! ;~)
I think that's all I have to report for today!
As always, thanks to everyone for their prayers and thoughts! And thanks to my dad
for weed eating our yard for us! It must have been driving you crazy!!
Click here for pics from today.
Love to all,
Holly, Ryan, and Family
GO BLUE
What another wonderful day! When we got to the hospital this morning, Nurse Kris
had taken the bandage off of Little Al's chest. This other bandage is where the
chest tube is in. This should be taken out tomorrow. Then he'll just have the lines
going in his belly button, and the feeding and oxygen tubes in his nose.
Before I go into more good news, I want to talk about Cassie again. She is the one I
talked about last night who needs a heart transplant. We talked to Cassie's mom and
grandma today, and things are not looking so good for her right now. Her organs are
not working right, so even if a heart came available for her, she wouldn't be able to
take it right now. All of the procedures they are doing on her have been experimental
because of her age. They've only done them on adults, not kids.
They found out today that she had a stroke and has lost movement in her left side.
But, they are hopeful that because she is so young, she will recover from it and regain
movement. Anyway, talking to this family, they are soooo strong. They told us all this,
and then asked how we were doing.
It was hard for both of us to tell them that Little Al was doing so well, so we just
kind of told them "fine" and dropped it. So, please, for all of you who have been
praying for our baby, add Cassie in there somewhere. She needs it at this point more
than our baby boy does! She's fighting, but I think could use all the help she can get.
She is so sweet, and I think this world needs to keep someone as sweet as she is!
Anyway, we got to hold our son today! Nurse Kris is very sweet, and let us hold him.
I (Holly) got to hold him for about 1/2 hour because (surprise, surprise) I had to go
pump! Then, Daddy held him for about 40 minutes! It was so great! He slept through
the whole thing! Kris had finally decided to try to swaddle him and see what he did,
and he fell instantly asleep. So, they kept him swaddled for the rest of the day.
He still needs to learn to cough so that they can quit suctioning him all the time. He
hates that, but will have to keep getting it done until he can either swallow the stuff
that builds up in his chest/throat, or cough it up. I try to tell him that, but he just
doesn't seem to understand.
When we get there tomorrow, he should be moved to a crib from his bed. If all goes
well tonight and tomorrow morning, he will get his chest tube out and then maybe
move to moderate care. So, we are hoping we may be heading home by the end of
next week! Wouldn't that be awesome?
I guess that I should mention that Ryan changed a diaper yesterday. And no, mommy
hasn't yet...
Oh yeah! Mommy put on her regular jeans yesterday!! Pretty good for only two
weeks, huh?
We're getting visitors tonight and this weekend. Art and Kirs are coming in tonight
until Sunday, and my old roommate Rachelle is coming in late Friday to visit her
college friend in Detroit, and they will be coming to see Little Al sometime this
weekend!
Click here for today's photos.
Until tomorrow...Go Maize and Blue...
Much love,
Holly, Ryan, and family
Tonight's entry is going to be short once again.... Art & Kirs, our friends from Des
Moines, arrived late last night and we are hanging out with them. We promise to make
a larger entry tomorrow night...WITH PHOTOS!!!!!
Here's a recap of today...which was a GREAT!!!, AWESOME!!!, OUTSTANDING!!! day.
First, when we got to the hospital, Little Al was in a crib, which makes him ready for
a move from the PCTU. Then we realized that his chest tube had been removed!!!!
Probably the last large annoyance he had left.
Then we learned that Little Al would be moved to the PICU, a slight step down from
where he was.
Art & Ryan decided to get 9 holes of golf in to relax a little bit. When they were
done with that, which Art won convincingly, they met up with Holly & Kirs and Little
Al in the PICU. While there, they learned that the doctors thought Little Al was doing
too well to still be in the ICU, so he would be moved to Moderate Care.
While we went out for dinner, Little Al took the trip to Moderate Care. We then went
back to see his new room. He is in good hands and tomorrow, we will start to learn all
the things necessary to care for Little Al when he is finally home.
He is doing GREAT!!! I mean GREAT with all capital letters!!! If all goes as it is now,
we should be headed home the end of next week!!!
Tomorrow night, we will get you more info and photos....
Ryan, Holly, family & friends
GO BLUE Medical Staff!!!
Tonight will be just photos, tomorrow we will update with today's news.....
HAPPY 10TH BIRTHDAY TO ALAN'S BIG SISTER, MEGAN!! WE MISS YOU AND
LOVE YOU! Little Al sends his love and sang happy birthday to you today! He wanted
us to make sure to put this message out on the website for you!!!
As you can see, both today and yesterday were pretty good days! Yesterday did not
start out very good as Little Al was very upset when we got there, and didn't calm
down for about two hours. We couldn't figure out what was wrong with him, and
Mommy was convinced that we were going back to the ICU, never to see Altoona,
Iowa again. But finally, he coughed once, spit up a little, and calmed right down. The
Doctor thought that maybe he was not getting enough oxygen, and too much Carbon
dioxide which would make him feel like he was being choked. The more upset he got,
the less he could breathe!
After that and a little nap, things got much better. He drank out of a bottle for the
first time, although it was only about 3 CC's, it was a first step! Today he drank
about 6 CC's out of a bottle, so that was very fun. Especially because Mommy got to
feed him that bottle!
Today, Holly's friend, Rachelle came with her son Noah to see Little Al. She is
staying in Detroit with her college friend Susanne and Sue's husband Warren. So,
they all came down to see the little guy, and spent a couple of hours at the hospital.
That was very fun for Mommy! Daddy stayed back at the hotel and did laundry :).
He does like to be held, just doesn't like to eat quite yet. He hasn't quite figured out
that he won't necessarily gag if something ends up in his mouth!
Not everything was roses for me (Holly) today, however. I had left Rachelle,
Susanne and Warren in Little Al's room to visit while I went to pump (I know, some of
you probably would rather not hear about that, but you know, it's pretty much taken
over my life at the moment). As I walked out into the hall to go back to the room, I
saw Cassie's grandma and grandpa coming down the hall. I stopped so that I could
talk to them, and pretty soon saw that grandma was crying, and they were carrying all
of the stuff that had been in Cassie's room. She walked into my arms, told me they
lost Cassie, and to please take care of that little baby of mine. I was speechless...I
knew that she wasn't doing well, but never even dreamed that she wouldn't make it.
So, even though Al has had such an easy and wonderful time these past few days, I
am very sad tonight. I was really looking forward to meeting her before we left,
when she was actually awake.
So thank you to those of you who prayed for her. We got a few messages from
people who added her to their prayers. That did make us feel good. It's absolutely
amazing how someone we've never even met can have such an impact on our lives.
Click here for photos.
Much love,
Holly, Ryan, and family
Go Blue!