Baby Joshua Biggun Keslar: 02/27/12

Donations

I wanted to extend my thanks to all those who have helped us over the last three months. Had it not been for your generosity, we would not have survived. And most importantly, we would not have been able to be by Biggun's side. There are no words that can express how much it means to me that I was given that opportunity.

Our situation is not nearly as dire as it was. We still take it day by day and manage our money very carefully. Hike for Heroes recently assisted us by putting $2000 directly towards bills we owed, which was a huge relief for us.

If you are still interested in helping or donating, we most definitely need items to gear up for Biggun coming home. There are certain things we still need such as a baby swing, bouncer, walker, bottles, diapers, wipes, and any/all sorts of baby clothes. He is currently wearing 0-3 months.

Donations can still be done the same way - You can go to www.paypal.com and donate to the email rachelxkeslar@gmail.com. You can also go to any CHASE bank and put in a deposit to Joshua Daniel Keslar. Any questions you might have can be sent to the rachelxkeslar@gmail.com email address.

Again, thank you for all your support. You kept us alive and by our baby's side. I cannot thank you enough for that.

Monday, February 27, 2012

Re-intubated

Biggun is still having some issues recovering from surgery. Most prominent is his inability to tolerate feeds. They gave him 5 ML at 10 am, then another 5 at 1 PM, and by 4 PM, they noticed he had not digested 6 ML of the 10 they fed him. So his stomach is still waking up from being under anesthesia.

They had an issue where they noticed him getting very puffy after two blood transfusions. They gave him LASIK, a drug that acts as a diuretic, and that seemed to help the swelling go down, but he is still retaining quite a bit of fluid. Usually, he gains 20-30 grams of weight per day, and he has been gaining 100 grams. Which isn't a good thing. It means he is retaining a high amount of fluid.

He also threw up this morning. When they looked, they found his stomach distended to 4 cm due to his ventilator tube going down into his stomach and essentially filling his stomach with air. They pulled the tube immediately and replaced it with a larger one, but he had air in his stomach and intestines, and vomit in his lungs. They have removed most of the air from his stomach, but some still leaked into his intestines, so he's going to have gas pains. They did a chest x-ray to determine how much vomit leaked into his lungs and figure out if they will need to go in and remove any excess. It was an unfortunate circumstance and it explains why he wasn't tolerating his feeds very well.

He is supposed to be removed from his ventilator tomorrow and be put back onto the CPAP and eventually on the nasal cannula, but being back on the ventilator has caused some major distress to his body. We are still being told not to touch him or talk much to him so he can get as much rest as possible, which is really frustrating. Cathy called me on Saturday night to tell me if I wanted to come sit bedside and read for a bit, she thought that would be okay. It made me feel SO much better to be able to help change his diaper, take his temperature and see him with the top off his isolette. So far, she has been the saving grace of the nursing care.

Keep the prayers coming. Tomorrow, Dr. Moshfeghi will return and tell us what his eyes are going to look like long term and whether the ROP is getting worse or better. Hopefully good news!

Much Love,
Rachel and Joshua