Another Hospital Visit

Ok, here we go again! As many know Tristan is back in the hospital. He had another stop breathing episode on Monday night except this one was severe enough that he wasn't coming back with stimulation. We did give him oxygen which got him breathing regularly again after about a minute, but in the meantime we of course called 911. We were taken to the UCLA Children's Hospital where I have now been residing for a week! As you can see from the photos he was happy at first. His bed is supposed to be in the slanted position to prevent reflux but he likes to sort of jump is way down the bed and up the bottom barrier to completely reverse the effect of a slanted bed. They have concluded that he has severe acid reflux which caused liquid to aspirate into his lungs in turn causing the lungs to close which made Tristan's body stiffen and turn purple from being freaked out that he couldn't breathe.

Unfortunately or fortunately depending how you look at it, during his stomach emptying test they made me feed him lying flat and then he kept lying like that for 90 minutes. This caused another aspiration as can be expected since we are very strict about feeding him upright and holding him upright after the feed for 30 minutes. That really scared the doctors so they took him off of feeding all together. This of course made Tristan and extremely grouchy baby. Due in part to the fact that they didn't start the first IV for 10 hours and then two days later it blew and they couldn't put in another one so they had to start a special feeding tube and by the time that was taken care of he again hadn't had nutrition for 15 hours. That of course made him severely dehydrated which scared Michael and I because Tristan lost his personality/smile/some motor function for a couple days. He just wasn't the same baby and was screaming his head off from hunger every couple hours. Yesterday he started the tube feeds which bypass his stomach, so no reflux occurs. This means he probably still feels hungry. These feeds starting made some extra gas build up and he was also constipated, which caused severe screaming yesterday and this morning. At this point all of that has been relieved he is rehydrated and feeling much better! I finally felt a little relief when he started smiling, "talking", and lifting his head to look around again this afternoon. My baby is back, hopefully for good! The nurses are all in love with him of course, and they don't just say that to everyone, or so they tell us.
: )

The result of his couple of tests and observation by the doctors is that he has severe reflux that needs NIssen Surgery- feel free to look that up for details. It should solve the acid reflux problem and they will also be doing another procedure at the same time to help the stomach empty faster. The surgery is on Wednesday, so everyone's prayers are appreciated. Even though it's a minor surgery, it's on our baby and we are extremely nervous. He also has to be intubated, which is slightly scary because the last time they did that for surgery he wouldn't come off for a week. But since he is much older now they say he should come off right away. My mom is flying down tonight to be our support, thank God! There has been talk of some other procedures, but I will keep you updated this week as we will finally be getting access to Wi Fi and at the hospital until at least the weekend.

In one bit of other news, Tristan has fantastic timing. Apparently he realized I was to return to work on Tuesday and decided to prevent that by going to the hospital the night before. Because of this episode Michael and I have decided that it's best if I leave my job for at least a few more months, if not for good, to be with Tristan. We were already nervous about leaving him with a nanny, but now it's just not possible. Prayers are appreciated that God will provide for us and we will be able to make it on one income for as long as necessary. Oddly, I had been praying for a way for me to be able to stay home with him and just thought it wasn't going to happen. Apparently, the prayer has been answered, just in a strange way. Thanks to everyone for your support!