We've had a couple of busy days. To take it in order, we got home Thursday night about 6:30 or so but had to be back for the chair of the ophthamology department to take a look at Allan's eye Friday morning. He did and apparently all of the ophthamologists who had looked at him over the past 3 days did as well. We had 3 kinds of drops that we had been using and one, the other or a combination of the 3 had had an effect and they could actually get a look at the back of his eye. This allowed them to rule out ROP. What it didn't allow them to do was figure out what was wrong with it. What else do you expect from Allan? The eye is inflamed (although less), the pressure was up (although some of the drops had reduced that) and there is "bombaying" or a lump on his eye. In addition, either his cataract has grown or has been displaced by the inflammation or pressure or both. For now, we are going to continue treating the symptoms since he does seem to be getting better and keep our fingers crossed. Every one was going to go home and think big thoughts and try to come up with a theory about what this is. They've also emailed photos and descriptions to some colleagues (friends, neighbors, a guy I once heard of who knew something about eyes....) We go back Monday first thing for another exam and more head-scratching. We'll let you know.

Home again, home again...

We made it back home at about 6 p.m. today. Allan is doing just fine -- he spent most of the day at the hospital but this is his shortest stay by far. No true explanation for why his heart rate did what it did -- they dosed him with Tylenol last night and it seemed to help until early this a.m. when he did it again. The best guess is that he was feverish from the vaccines which can make your heart rate go up. On top of that we added the eye drops, the side effect of which can be making your heart rate go up, etc. At any rate, that seems to be under control. With respect to his eye issue, we are still largely in the dark. We had yet another opthalmologist checking him out today and the chair of the department is going to look at it tomorrow. The best guess is that it is an atypical presentation of delayed ROP. Yes, that would be our son -- Allan the Atypical. The drops we are using seem to be helping some. The pressure in his eye has been reduced back to normal which is good. The drops to expand the pupil seem to be helping, too. The retinal specialist who looked at him today doesn't think that his is a problem requiring surgical interventation and that they may be able to do some cryo/freezing procedure that will take care of the overgrowth of blood vessels. At any rate, the docs are going to caucus tomorrow and come up with some proposal. Still, Allan's eye looks better and he seems to be quite comfortable.
More tomorrow when we know something.

A mixed bag

Today has been a mixed bag. First, Griff went to NICU Graduate Clinic at 9. He did great. In fact, he is a little show off. Among other things, they were checking to see how he was developing. With the exception of a little need to focus on his shoulder and chest strength, he was a little rock star. He is a whopping 21.75 inches long and weighs in at 9 pounds and 11 ounces. He isn't the biggest kid on the block, but he is gaining ground and is quite impressive. He tracks or follows objects, he can keep his head even with his body when pulled up and he has good balance when sitting up (with assistance). Although I thought he was going to become infuriated with the physical exam, he thought it was a lot of fun and laughed out loud at some of the nurse practitioner's antics. Flora was quite jealous. Griff also got his 6 month vaccines and has been a doll baby ever since. Which is a good thing. Now for the mixed part...
Allan doesn't have pink eye or anything else nearly as innocuous. The working theory is that he has the delayed onset of ROP which is a condition preemies have where they develop vascular abnormalities in their eyes. It is rare (like buy an effing lottery ticket) rare that someone as old as Allan would develop it, but, there you (may) have it. We got a go directly to the opthalmologist card when we turned up at the pediatrician's today. Saw everyone who was in the office this afternoon, have drops to put in poor Big Al's eyes. The condition of his eyes is such that they can't tell for sure what is going on, but it seems that blood vessels are suddenly growing where they shouldn't in one eye. The pressure in that eye is high (think glaucoma) and we are using three different drops to try to reduce pressure and inflammation so that they can get a better view of what's going on. He weighed in at 11 pounds 15 ounces and 22 inches long. He hasn't had a good night -- his heart rate was too high and he was running a temp. This may all be due to the vaccines today, but we couldn't take the risk and Dad is doing the emergency run even as I type. With any luck he will be discharged tomorrow, but they aren't going to play around with someone as small and fragile as he is.
Anyway, say a prayer that this eye thing amounts to a mountain out of a molehill and I will try to blog early tomorrow afternoon.

Short blog. Allan seems to have pink eye and a stomach ache and has wanted to be held all day and night. Griffith doesn't have that excuse but still wants to be held.
Tomorrow Griffith has an early appointment at the NICU Graduate Clinic and then they both have their 6 month check ups and vaccines so they may be fussy tomorrow.

The weekend recap

The boys have had another good weekend and, so far, this week is starting off pretty well.
Jay was out of town Thursday until Saturday afternoon so we called in reinforcements. Jen came over to see her Pretty Boy (Allan) and he smiled all over himself at her. As soon as she picked him up, though, he hurled every ounce of formula that he had ever eaten right straight down her cleavage. We don't know whether this was retribution for all the rude things she did to him in the NICU or if he was just so delighted to see her that he tossed his cookies. It didn't seem to deter her much, though, because she kept telling him how pretty he was and she came back today to hold him again (no projectile vomiting this time.) Stephanie came on Friday and was whirling like a dervish, holding first one kid and then the other. Kim must have kept Griffith up all night because, on Friday night, he slept the whole night through for Stephanie. Dad made it back Saturday afternoon and took on the boys solo so that Momma could spend some time out. It really didn't even matter where -- just out was fine. Jay was very impressed that Griffith slept through Saturday night -- until I pointed out that the only one who slept through that night was Jay. Griffith and I were up, per usual, at 2:30 and Allan and I were up at 4.
I spent a fair amount of time Saturday acquiring fall and winter wear for the boys. Miss Flora has a lovely, indirect way of letting me know when she thinks that I need to do something. Friday, it was "when do you think we should start putting undershirts on the boys?" Um. Dunno. Today? Just a guess. Any way, in pursuit of undershirts with side snaps for Allan (hard to get pullovers on him because of the oxygen tubing), I managed to find a bunch of little hats (Flora is a big fan of hats, too). Two of the acquisitions have made the blog already. Griff thought he looked pretty fetching in his and he wore it almost all day today. He was quite a little pill today, too. He would take a little sip of his bottle, fall asleep and then wake up as soon as you tried to lay him down. Not just wake up. Wake up and scream and cry real tears. This went on, literally, all afternoon. Flora is pretty sure that someone has spoiled him but she isn't sure who to blame. Possibly someone who comes in at night?
We take Griff back to the NICU Graduate Clinic on Wednesday morning and then both boys get their month shots that afternoon. Other than that, we plan on sitting tight, hanging out and getting bigger.

The weekend recap

Allan and his beanie (II)

Allan and his beanie

Griff and his beanie (II)

Griffith in his beanie