Week 7

Wednesday 3rd December

I started the day very poorly still. I felt really chesty and couldn’t cough it up quick enough. Julie the physio was sucking my secretions out of me at a rate of knots but I still had plenty to fill a whole swimming pool. They then decided that I should have my patch put back on to minimise my secretions and so by the afternoon this has kicked in and was doing a great job. I also had lots of nebuliser action and was given 1ml of saline solution to loosen up my chest. I felt like today was a continuous round of suctioning, nebuilising, physio and feeding that never ended. By tea time I was so tired that I threw all my dinner back up everywhere - Dad was not impressed as his trousers where within reach.

Mum and Dad decided eau de sick was not a good smell so they gave me a warm bath which was quite nice.

After my bath, my secretions were really thick (because of the patch having dried them up) and they became unmanageable again and stuck in my throat. So, after contacting Tina the physio for some advice, we decided my patch should come off....again! grown ups - I wish they would make up their mind.

Oi! give me back my patch

To top it off Mum wanted to take my patch and stick it on Dad as a joke without him noticing as this would shrivel him up like a prune - parents can be so childish.

So here I am - hair all all spikey from my bath with no patch on (behind my ear) and having my feed anytime soon I hope (I have a very empty tummy). I am hoping tomorrow brings a hassle free day. I start my new rapid weight gain milk tomorrow so am hoping they can beef me up a bit as I get embarrassed when anyone sees my skinny legs - not very manly although I do have my scar from my biopsy :-)

Very funny Mum now take it off Dad

Lastly I wanted to say hi to a new friend Erin Cormack who emailed me and is also 6 weeks old. You sound lovely even without hair and I know what you mean about the milk getting monotonous - Mum likes to eat chocolates but never shares any with me.

Thursday 4th December

Started the day feeling pretty rubbish again. Sue H was in charge of taking care of me today and called in the doctor to take a look at me. Henry the doctor suggested we try the patch on again and take it off later on when my secretions get thicker, so that’s what we did.

Mum and Dad decided a humidifier would help my chest and their afternoon mission to find one. It took them four hours, five phone calls to various Boots and Argos outlets. Dad got nowhere with the people at Boots because they misheard him and thought he was asking for a Human Defier(?!) and on one annoying call to the Argos ‘Customer Service’ helpdesk - a stupid women (according to Dad) couldn’t even tell Mum and Dad where the closest Argos shop was “because I live in cheshire and don’t know your area” she said. When Dad pointed out she was a customer helpdesk and should at least be able to locate a store for us she got stroppy with him so he gave up.

Finally Mum and Dad got in the car and drove to Solihull and found an humidifier that was luckily in stock. So by tea time Dad said I had 60% humidity in my bedroom which helped my chest and essence of lavender and eucalyptus added to the steamer- which was yummy and nearly sent everyone in the room off the sleep.

I spent most the evening snoozing to get some energy back so Sue told Mum and Dad to go out to the pub for tea to get out the place. So off they popped and back they came about an hour later as they missed me so much. (well Mum did - I think Dad could of stayed for a few more pints judging by his look).

Friday 5th December

Steph was taking care of me today and said she was very worried about my colour. She thought I looked pasty (she should see my mum) so she kept giving me a whiff of oxygen to perk me up but I felt rubbish most the day.

Tina gave me some good physio and sucked a lot of secretions out of me but I still sounded bubbly. So by 5pm they called out Pat the doctor and he said I was obviously just tired and full of gunk. Mum, Dad, Steph and Tina all tried to get me off to sleep and eventually after three rounds of the Baby Beethoven CD I nodded off (if only to get away from the music).

Later on I opened my first Xmas present. It is from my next door neighbour Georgina who is very old at 10 weeks. She bought me a lovely twinkle, twinkle little star toy which is blue and now hangs above my Moses basket. Dad likes it a lot and secretly I think he wants it above his bed.

is it my go yet Dad?

Dad and I then spent the evening having a cuddle and playing games - although Dad never actually let me have a go on the Gameboy Advance ....so I fell alseep.

Saturday 6th December

Its been all action today. I was happily feeding away and suddenly got this really annoying lump of gunk stuck in my throat - this completely blocked my windpipe and so I lay there hoping someone would notice... a few seconds later Dad spotted I had stopped breathing and unplugged me from my feed and raced down the hall with me to my bedroom to get me to the suction machine. Mum meanwhile, thinking Dad was flapping as usual, calmly carried on tidying up the spilt milk on the floor. Steph the nurse who was sat on the loo at the time - heard Dad calling for her as he ran to my bedroom and she came running too (apparently she said this really tested her pelvic floor muscles - whatever that means). Dad and Steph managed to remove a huge lump of secretions from the back of my throat in time and quickly gave me some oxygen. This was when I started to breathe again with quite a bit of relief I can tell you.

Mum strolled back in 10 mins later and was shocked to see me as white as my babygrow as she hadn’t realised what had happened. She said she felt really bad for cursing Dad for running off with me mid-feed.

It took about an hour of oxygen and suctioning from Nikki (the very tall physio) for me to feel better again. Mum said I was a much better colour and gave me a cuddle and I fell asleep after my ordeal.

I woke up a while later to find Mum and Dad had completely lost the plot and were hanging some festive Winnie-the-pooh set of lights around my pram which Sue H had bought me as a present. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m a big fan of Winnie-the-pooh, but these were a little on the naff side as I’m quite a classy baby - but it would seem I’m not anymore.

So since I can’t talk yet I had to be pushed around looking like a mobile Christmas tree with hanging bits and lights on my pram - all I needed was a big fairy on my head to finish the picture.

suppose the bath wasn’t too bad...

By tea time I was told I had to have a lovely warm bath. Mum said I started to smell a bit so it was necessary - I didn’t mind too much so long as it was a quick one as I can only take so much of their enthusiasm in getting me to kick in the water.

Steph then gave me my physio with my head hanging off her knee and almost upside down - this made my hair dry sticking up and I spent the rest of the evening having people trying to flatten it off for me. - Life is very tricky....

Sunday 7th December

Today I didn’t feel so good. I started the day feeling rubbish and then just as Margaret the nurse came on shift I got a huge lump of something nasty stuck in my throat . She very quickly pulled it out and helped me to breathe again with some oxygen - phew. She then sent a nurse up to fetch Mum and Dad from their bedroom as it was very early in the morning, and just as they came down I had another episode where another piece of nasty goo got stuck. I couldn’t cough it up and I started to go very white again....luckily Margaret spotted it straight away and in rushed Dad to help her suction me and out rushed mum because she’s a chicken :-) They managed to clear my throat successfully and gave me some more oxygen which I continued to use for hours afterwards as it makes me feel better.

Tina the physio had been called in to see me as I was so unwell. When she arrived all the main drama was over but she decided I needed some good physio to make sure they had got it all. While she was suctioning away at me I went to hold her hand and nearly made her cry I think. She was so touched by me holding her hand - I never knew it was so easy to please the ladies...must remember that one.

I can still hear what your saying you know...

just resting my eyes...

Anyway- I spent the day feeling off and on and mostly tried to get some sleep because I was exhausted. Pat the doctor came to see me twice and I heard him mutter something about increasing my morphine - bring on the drugs I say.... So I have been increased from 0.5ml to a hefty 0.15ml every fours hours.

My feeds have gone down to two hourly to make me more comfortable and Dad says this new milk ‘Infatrini’ gives me more bad wind than George our cat after he’s eaten a few birds. Sorry Dad - I’ll try and keep it in order for you as I don’t want to risk putting anyone off the cuddles.

Monday 8th December

Today was really hard work. I needed to get my beauty sleep so I spent all morning, afternoon and evening sleeping on either Mum, Dad, SueH or my visiting relations Grandma R, Uncle Jonny and Grandpa. I opened an eye to peep at a few people from time to time but that was about the extent of it. Only one word for today and that’s exhausted!

tigger lovin’

Are you sure these are my parents? I’m far better looking....

Tuesday 9th December

Today was also quite hard work, I felt quite poorly all day and didn’t really get much sleep. I was also quite poorly a few times overnight so the nurses kept getting Mum and Dad out of bed to come and check on me, they both looked quite tired today.

I did have lots of visitors today, including Auntie Claire, Auntie Sarah, Grandma C and Grandad, Uncle Tony and Auntie Kate. All the extra cuddles made me quite tired, but I did my best to look happy to see them all.

Also, because I felt better for a little while this afternoon Mum and Dad let me play on my play mat for a little while. It was great fun and I can’t wait to have a go another day.

Dr Henry and Dr Pat came to see me a few times today and made a few changes to my drugs again. It’s nice they keep calling in and I do feel a lot better with my extra morphine, calpol and midazolam (which is a sedative).

Sensory Overload!
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