Back in the Hospital Again!

Hanging out in his hospital crib...

Exhausted after a long day of doctors and tests..

Not feeling so well ....

The week started off very badly with the awful Neonatology Clinic but we didn't expect to end up in the hospital! Monday was Lincoln's Clinic visit and GI checkup... we thought he felt a little warm that day but his temp was normal.. Wednesday morning our nurse took his temp and this time it was 103.7! Of course that meant I had to take him straight to Children's. Greg couldn't leave work so I had the scary task of driving him by myself to Columbus. He was sooo hot and covered in sweat, I seriously feared the high temp would cause him to have a seizure or something on the way down but luckily he did not. We finally made it and when they took his temp again it was 104.8. We are not allowed to give Lincoln any type of medicine, such as Tylenol etc.. because of the possible liver damage so they pumped him full of fluids and heavy antibiotics. Eventually they did give him Tylenol which seemed to help. He had a very high heart rate and blood pressure also. The big fear with kids that have central lines, is that they could get a line infection which can be deadly. At one point during our NICU stay, one of the doctors told us that line infections are the biggest cause of death to these babies so we were very worried. They placed him on gentomiacin, vancomyacin and another antibiotic to combat it and luckily, it has worked. The lab results show he does have a central line staph infection (gram positive) but he has responded to the treatment and is much better now. He will need to stay on iv antiobiotics for 10 days but because we are trained with his iv line and have home nursing we may be allowed to bring him home Monday and administer the vanco ourselves through his Broviac. That would be wonderful considering Monday is also his first birthday!! He had the doctors very very worried but once again he bounced back. He has enjoyed getting visits from his favorite NICU nurses while he is here though! We contacted the Easter Bunny and asked him to please visit our home NEXT Sunday so that we can enjoy the holiday with Cole there also.. so for now, Easter is postponed :). We are having cake in his hospital room tomorrow so he can celebrate a little with his nurses and of course we will do it all over again at home Monday... hopefully! Oh, and the BIG birthday party will be in July, on his actual due date... I think he deserves three birthday parties in one year :)! Thank you for all the prayers and messages! We will keep the blog updated on his progress... He is in room T4016.. but hopefully only for a couple more days!