Just a few more pictures of our cute boy 
They had to redo his stomach drain tube after he managed to totally dislodge it today. They taped it to the other side of his cheek to give his left side a bit of a break.
Time moves at a different pace in here. Close your eyes. Now open them. It is now bedtime. Close your eyes. Now open them. It is now morning. Quick huh? Unfortunately, there is a whole lot of crying and screaming that goes on in between, but I try not to do it all that often.
Nothing seems to have changed much. We are still waiting for him to have a bowel movement. It has been 8 days since his surgery to fully close his gastroschisis. According to all the doctors and nurses he has “bowel sounds” which, according to them, means things are working — just not fast enough for us!
Oh yeah, Happy New Year.
The title just about sums it all up. I am freaking exhausted. Phoenix has been moved from the NICU at DUKE to the PEDS floor, into his own room. This is good news, it means he no longer requires the constant watch and supervision of the nurses in the NICU. It also means, if we do not stay up there with him, he will be in the room all by himself.
This is where the tiredness falls into play.
His days and nights are still switched. He is also still attached to several monitors and a stomach drain. We can pick him up, however, the most we can really do is just sit on the bed with him. We cannot move around at all.
His stomach closure is looking good, and it even looks like he will have a /somewhat/ normal belly button. The doctors and nurses have been able to hear bowel sounds, but unfortunately, nothing has passed yet. Once he passes a bowel movement (poop for the lay person) then they will start the slow process of weaning him onto food.
Although he has never had food, I still believe he is hungry. He is being fed through an IV, but I bet he still has hunger pains. He probably just doesn’t associate them with food yet.
I imagine that once they start the feeding process two things will happen. One: Phoenix will be very happy to get food. Two: Phoenix will be very pissed off at the tiny amounts of food he will be given while his body adjusts to working properly.
It was actually a pretty frustrating experience being moved from the NICU to the regular floor. Our nurses in the NICU were familiar with Phoenix and what his plan of treatment was. Moving to the floor meant re-educating a whole new group of people.
I am actually still a bit pissed over what happened the first night on the floor. Phoenix still has a tube into his stomach that constantly sucks out the content. It is constantly flowing, and with the occasional exception of when the bottom of the tube rests up against the stomach wall, bubbles can usually be seen in the tube, indicating, at least, a flow of air. There have also been times it has just become a bit clogged. The NICU nurses easily fix this by injecting a bit of water down the tube. This usually
clears the clog and allows for the tube to continue to suck the green contents from his stomach.
I told our nurse on the floor that the tube wasn’t moving anything. She came by stuck her ear to an overflow valve on the tube and told me to listen. “If you can hear a small whistle, then you know it’s working”, she said. That’s fine and dandy, and somewhat true. BUT… If the tube in his stomach is clogged you will still hear air flowing through that valve as it is pulled in FROM THE OUTSIDE rather than his stomach. She basically just told us it was working and looked at me as if I was some uneducated asshole.
Now, granted, I have not had the education that she has, but I have been watching my son for the past two weeks. I watch what the nurses do. I watch how they do what they do! I may not know /why/ they do a certain thing, but I can damn sure tell you /how/ it is done.
So the next morning Jenene phones me (I stayed at the house the first night). She then tells me that when the nurses were weighing him in the morning, they had apparently jostled his tube around a bit (they weigh him nekkid). When the tube was moved around in his stomach, whatever was blocking it became unblocked and it started pumping out a TON of the green goo!
Needless to say, I was furious. I so wanted to give the nurse a piece of my mind, but steered pretty clear of us the next night. I am sure she knew I was pissed. Hell she could already tell that the first night. Ha!
Other than her our nurses have been pretty receptive and good. I have fun messing with them, and so long as I’m happy… everyone should be.
Well, Phoenix has finally fallen asleep — Hello kid, this is when you wake up — I’m going to try and get a couple hours sleep.
Man charged with assault on confined person for passing ‘bad gas’ on cellmate
Posted: December 26, 2006
5:35 p.m. Eastern
© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com
 Brian Bruggeman accused of causing big stink at Nebraska’s Lincoln County Jail |
His name is Brian Bruggeman, but the Nebraska inmate may get a nickname more like “Jack the Ripper” after constantly blasting his cellmate with flatulence.
Bruggeman, 38, is now charged with assault on a confined person for allegedly passing gas repeatedly, resulting in a fight at the Lincoln County Jail.
(Story continues below)
Guards were first alerted to the problem Dec. 14 when inmate Jesse Dorris began banging on his cell door, screaming he wanted out of his cell, according to the North Platte Bulletin.
Dorris couldn’t stand Bruggeman’s “bad gas,” said Sheriff Jerome Kramer.
“Dorris told the jailers that he had complained to Bruggeman for two days, calling it rude,” the paper reported. “He said he had even tried to stay at the other end of the cell block but that Bruggeman had insisted in passing gas near him on multiple occasions.”
Dorris was finally moved to a different cell out of nose-shot of Bruggeman, but that afternoon while inmates were lining up for dinner, Bruggeman reportedly got next to Dorris, backed up to him and broke wind once again.
That sparked a fight between the pair, with Bruggeman striking Dorris in the head, causing the right side to bounce off the cell bars.
Deputies investigating the scuffle said it wasn’t long before they knew they had a case that stunk.
“They smelled a liar but quickly sniffed out who was guilty,” according to one source. “It was an air tight case.”
Bruggeman, who was originally serving a 90-day sentence for violating a protection order, could get five more years and fines up to $10,000 if convicted of his latest foul.
Today turned out to be a brilliant day. Talon had stayed the night over at my mother’s, so Jenene and I were able to go up and see Phoenix early today. The doctors had told us his breathing tube would be in for 48 hours. We were pleasantly surprised when we arrived and he no longer had it in.
The nurse asked us, “Have you held him yet?”.
I replied, “No.”
“Would you like to hold him?”, she replied.
Jenene and I both, just short of yelling replied, “YES!!”
It was absolutely brilliant. Phoenix was wide awake, alert and curious. Jenene and I were both on cloud nine. I tried to jump in there first, but I figured since she did the whole “carry him for 9 months thing” I would let her have first crack at him. Aren’t I nice?
I think we could both literally sit there and hold him for hours.
Back home and back to reality, Talon is so excited he “is about to explode”. At least that is what he told me. LOL He is so worried that I will be up late and santa won’t visit.
I can’t wait until tomorrow morning. Talon also asked, “What if I get up early and you guys aren’t up yet, can I wake you up?” Too funny how he is thinking everything through.
Daddy and Phoenix
Jenene and Phoenix
Phoenix all bundled up and ready to be held (man is he cute!)
Big yawn from the little boy
Phoenix is scheduled for surgery this morning at 8am. We were originally told they were hoping to reduced the Gastroschisis enough so that they could close him up by this past Friday. We were told Wednesday they didn’t think it would reduce enough by Friday and that they were going to shoot middle of next week. Yesterday when my mother stopped by the hospital they had already reduced it enough to remove the silo and schedule the surgery for today.
It was almost a bit odd to see him last night without the silo being suspended above his belly. It still amazes me how much of his intestines were outside his body. It was a bit of a shock when I first saw him with the silo in place. I knew what to expect, but the swelling of the intestines made them look huge in the silo.
Yesterday, my boy looked much better.
I cannot wait to hold him.
These are a few pictures from the NC State Fair 2006 in October.
I now have in my possession, straight from Hastings, UK, the tape of George and Tim’s visit to the US.
Stay tuned.
Gotta love it when news items are properly researched.
First…
Then updated…
For those of you that do not know, the first snake pictured is a Ball Python. The story references Burmese Pythons.
[ Article Link ]
No matter how you type it, it just doesn’t sound the same as when Joey from Friends says it.
Ok, enough about you. Let’s talk about me now. That is why we are here isn’t it?
Today seems off to a good start. It is 6:45 am and I already have a second load of clothes in the dryer. Yeah me! Mind you, washing the clothes - no problem. It’s the folding and putting away of the clothes that I can’t stand! — The light on Jill’s iguana cage keeps blinking on and off. I am not sure why. I still feel a bit detached from reality at the moment, but I am slowly catching up on things and getting back into the swing of a somewhat normal routine.
Jenene is pumping milk for Phoenix every 3 hours around the clock. I don’t know how she does it. Well I /do/ know how she does it, I remember from school. I was talking about the getting up every 3 hours. Phoenix is only getting nourishment from IV fluids so it is all going into the freezer. We actually plan to pick up a small chest freezer to keep it all in.
Phoenix is doing well. The doctors had hoped to be able to fully reduce the Gastroschisis and close his belly this Friday, but we were told yesterday that doesn’t look that will happen. He is having daily bowel movements, so we have some indication that things are somewhat working properly with his insides.
It is tough not being able to hold him, especially when he is upset or in pain. If he gets too uncomfortable they will give him a bit of morphine, which quickly calms him down. He does calm down when we are there and tends to fall asleep. Not that big a deal, as we would rather have him sleeping and getting better.
Below is a quick clip from the other day and of course my Flickr account is updated frequently.
