Kinley had a great Thursday night and Friday morning of keeping her food down. She has not thrown up a single cc of milk since yesterday around noon. We hear that a majority of this lack of vomit is due to how much Kinley slept. She slept from 8:30 pm to midnight. Hopefully she can continue that little trend when she comes home.
There are a couple of changes made during rounds today. Kinley's methadone dose (which is only given once a day) will be lowered from 0.8 mg to 0.7 mg. Also, they will be increasing the fortification of Kinley's milk. It is currently fortified to increase the calories per ounce to 22, but they are going to give it a bit more and increase the calories per ounce to 24. This calorie change is based on Kinley's weight gain. Dr. O and Delores (nurse practitioner) do not feel that she is gaining weight fast enough. Delores always likes to point out that Kinley's arms and legs are not fat enough.
Around 11:15 am Kinley received one of her two (a while back they divided it into two doses because Kinley could not keep it down) beloved doses of vitamins with iron supplement. Soon after, I sit down with Kinley to feed her her 25 ccs bottle. Kinley finishes the entire bottle, but about 15 minutes later the iron supplement got the best of her and she threw up a good portion of what she just ate including her vitamins with iron. That vitamin with iron supplement must be some pretty nasty stuff. I am just glad that I don't have to take it.
Without the vitamins and iron beating up Kinley's inside, she took her 2:00 pm and 5:00 pm feedings like a champ. To try and get Kinley hooked as early as possible, I have started reading Harry Potter to her after she finishes her bottle feeds. I can't say that she stays awake the whole time, but music therapy told us that even when Kinley is asleep it is good for her to hear our voices.
After shift change it is time for Kinley's 8:00 pm bottle feed. Just like her earlier feedings, she took the entire bottle without incident. Kathy and I are overjoyed to see Kinley eating so well without, what felt like, constant vomiting. We know that a 90 cc bottle feed is pretty big, but seeing her eat like this gives us more hope that she will be able to come home without an NG tube. To be quite honest, we really don't want her to have to come home with an NG tube because that means that both of us will have to learn how to put one in. And we have seen how upset Kinley gets when the trained nurses do it.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment