Tuesday 8 May 2012

Oxygen, NG Tube Feeds and UTI's

We are home! We seem to be surrounded by cords, oxygen and now an NG tube. I try not to think about our situation too much as I start thinking about 'what ifs' and what things could have been like, the way I imagined it to be, but then I remember our beautiful blessing of Faith. God never gives us challenges we are unable to bare though I find that concept hard to fathom at times. Faith is talking a lot more and I love listening to her babble. Mama and dada are common words and my heart leaps when I hear them. I look forward to when she can tell us what is going on.

We have tried a couple of times to wean her off the gabapentin particularly when we have a good week but it usually backfires as she isn't ready and makes her symptoms worse. The doctors wanted us to try. So we decide just to leave it until she is more stable. UTI's are an ever present trouble and we have just about a week well and Faith gets another UTI. We can't seem to get them to stay away. Taking a daily antibiotic isn't an option as Faith has resistance to them and we need to have one of them that can treat the UTI. The best antibiotic for her UTI's seem to be nitrofurantoin, not even the IV antibiotics seem to work now.

We have had a few more trips to the Brisbane hospital with recurrent UTI's and Faith's seizure medications being reassessed. We are getting so tired of living away from home and not being able to enjoy Faith and her not being about to enjoy life. The vomiting has reached a new level, its uncontrollable. We take a chance and take Faith off the formula and NG feeds completely and put her onto pureed solids as she is doing so well at them now. After a few days of the solids she has started sleeping through the night which is a first, she is usually so restless and up and down through the night. Amazing! Loving the extra sleep. The gagging and vomiting has virtually disappeared and she is well.

At the end of November 2011 Faith has been booked in to for another MRI as before we took her off the formula the neurosurgeons wanted to see if the syrinx had returned and if that was contributing. Since she has been well, we really didn't want to have it done as her feeding is so delicate we didn't want to lose how well she was doing but we thought we better. The day of the MRI the doctors had a really hard time getting the drip in and in the end they inserted one in her head. I dislike this as it is near her shunt and it makes me so uncomfortable but we needed to get it done. The MRI report showed that the syrinx had collapsed, this is amazing as they thought this wouldn't happen. So having the MRI was good in that respect.

Unfortunately there was quite a negative aspect to the scan as from that day forward Faith's eating deteriorated. First, the speech pathologist thought it was just a sore throat from the tube used in the anesthetic, so we started blending the food and putting it down her tube and continued trying to get her to eat solids but no success. Another challenge we came against was when we were testing Faith's wee for a UTI we noticed her ketones were extremely high and this started happening after feeds too. Faith's body was in a state of ketosis. We got an urgent appointment with a metabolic specialist in Brisbane. Faith had lost 1kg in a month this was not good. Tests were done to see what was going on and it appears it was due to her change in foods and not getting enough energy so we were given a formula without protein in it - energivit. She seem to tolerate this well and we could see her getting stronger and less overall vomiting but we started getting this horrible vomiting and sweats in the morning. If only Faith was still eating solids.

Life is improving and we are starting to have more good days. Vomiting just in the morning is more bearable than vomiting all day so we are managing it ok. Christmas is approaching and we are excited that Faith might be well. I think our life is starting to change for the better.

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