Off the feeding again...

Just like I thought!! I knew it was too soon to start feeding him again. Turns out that Matthew was not tolerating the feedings because he was having a lot of residuals and it was over 25% of the total amount that they were feeding him. In addition, it looks like he is not pooping again. It appears that his intestines are still dilated so they are going to hold off on the feedings like originally planned. Gee, I could have told them that!! The doctor that made the decision to start his feedings again is a very good doctor but he only works at the hospital once a month and he flys in from Boston, so basically he doesn't know Matthew like I do and I was really concerned when he wanted to start feeding Matthew again so soon.

I don't know if you know, but the hospital where Matthew is at is a teaching hospital so every two weeks he gets a new doctor. We have made it all the way through all the doctors they have on staff, so we are starting over again. The new doctor that has Matthew today has been with the NICU for over 20 years and is really good. He had Matthew when he was first born so we are familiar with him, however It is still hard when they switch doctors on you. Today Dr. Kim wanted to take Matthew down to radiology to do another gastrograffin enema to help him poop and to see if there is some sort of blockage in the intestines. They had about 7 new admissions today so they were really busy with the new babies and did not get to it. I am sort of glad because Matthew needs time to rest. Unfortunately, his eye appointment is tomorrow and they were still talking about doing the enema tomorrow. I had to step in and tell at least 5 of the doctors about what happens when he has his eye appointment and when they push him to do something else the same day. So I am hoping that they hold off on something tomorrow. Then to top it off, they wanted to try a second attempt at getting that deep IV line into Matthew today but I finally convinced them not to do it, so they may try to do it on Wednesday but that may conflict with one of the other tests. I feel like I really need to be down at the hospital a lot this week to make sure the doctors don't try to do too much with him too soon again.

So far he is still on the nasal cannula, but he is no longer on room air. They've had to bump him up between 25 and 30% oxygen for most of the day. This may be a sign that he is getting tired and may end up on CPAP. He is still cranky because he is not getting food, but I did get to hold him for about an hour today and he slept the whole time. I just love holding him!

Please continue to keep Matthew in your prayers and pray that his eye appointment goes well and that his eyes are actually improving. Pray for the doctors and nurses that are taking care of him to have the wisdom and discernment when making decisions about his care and tests. Pray that the doctors will be able to finally figure out what the problem is with his intestines. Please pray for God to give me insight about the timing of his tests and the ability to step in at the appropriate time and say something to the doctors.