Casey finally had her last IV removed today! It was her PICC line went all the way up her arm and into her chest – by far the one we wanted out the most and of course the last one to come out. Since she is getting all her nutrition through her g-tube and finished her round of antibiotics from her pneumonia 2 weeks ago, the doctors decided she didn’t need the line anymore.
She is still on a number of other medications, but they can all be administered in liquid form through her g-tube.
Since Casey isn’t on her IV food anymore, she has gotten a little jaundiced again. The doctors said this is a normal reaction to her liver adjusting and should subside in a few days.
With feedings going well and her vital signs being stable, the doctors are starting to talk about sending Casey home. A lot of details still have to happen, but it looks like it could be real soon. They had us come in Saturday for a continuous 12-hours where we moved Casey into a “transition room” and we took complete care of her, drawing and givings meds, suctioning, changing, feeding, etc. The nurses were closeby in case anything happened, but it went very smoothly. We also took CPR, and did training on the feeding pump that we will be using at home and what to do if her feeding tube gets pulled out.
It’s going to be quite a task coordinating with all the doctors and home health care to setup our followup appointments and order equipment that we would need to care for Casey at home. We are going to need to do regular checkups with our pediatrician, neurology, physical/occupational therapy, social workers, and gastro. Thankfully the NICU is helping to get a lot of this setup for us.
Grandma Barnes is coming in town to see Casey again tomorrow. Casey has grown up so much in the last month – she is almost 9 pounds and moves around quite a bit more now.
As soon as we know more on when Casey is coming home we will make sure we post pictures and video of the homecoming!