Almost out of here

For those of you who didn't hear... We had a little scare with Finn on Wednesday and he had to spend the night in the ICU.  He had a pretty bad night on Tuesday and I called Dennen to come up at 3 a.m. that night. Dennen is so selfless. On numerous occasions he has shown up at the drop of a hat when I am by myself and am stressed or scared (even if it's the middle of the night and I know he's dead tired). I am so grateful he showed up that night. The next morning was a whirlwind of craziness.   

All of Finn's vitals started going through the roof at around 8 a.m on Wednesday. His temperature was rising and his heart rate was above 200 bpm. Finn had a picc-line placed before his surgery to give him nutrition. They were giving him TPN and lipids through it. The infectious disease team of doctors came and told us that the picc-line was the biggest culprit for his infection. No sooner than those words came out of their mouth's, than a slew of nurses and IV team people came in and took out his picc-line and got an IV in each of his hands. They took some cultures from his blood and found out he had a fungal infection in his blood. Next, he was rushed to the ICU to monitor him while he got an IV drip of anti-fungal medicine. What they were really worried about was him going septic.

Long story short we had to stay in the ICU for about 24 hours (thank goodness it wasn't longer). The anti-fungal medication was working and Finn acted so much better. I am soooo grateful for modern medicine and life-saving drugs. There is absolutely no way Finn would have made it without those drugs. Thank you genius scientists for coming up with them!!

Hanging out in the ICU.

The surgery team came and talked with us this morning. They said basically now the only thing holding us back from leaving is that Finn still needs to be getting the anti-fungal medication through his IV for ten more days. The infectious disease team came and talked with us too. They're hoping that they can send us home with an oral medication that Finn can take. If the oral medication isn't the best match for the type of yeast he has in his blood, they're going to have to send us home with another picc-line. What the?! The doctors kind of calmed my fears though and said that probably one of the main reasons the yeast grew in his blood via the picc-line was because of the TPN he was getting. Apparently TPN has a lot of dextrose (sugar) in it and yeast live off of it. We'll know by tomorrow if it's the oral or the picc-line route. Either way we should be home by tomorrow night or Tuesday morning.

Out of the ICU! See the sugar candle in that chocolate goodie? Yeah, it was Dennen's birthday that day.

Getting reacquainted with food.

Finn got the suction tube taken out of his one nose hole. We're going to go home with the other one to give him night feeds. I'm sure some parents would be reluctant or nervous to go home with a feeding tube in their child's nose, but I am welcoming it with open arms. What a blessing at this point in time!

Speaking of blessings... I am so grateful to a loving Heavenly Father that helped us get through this. Throughout all of the procedures that Finn had done while we were here I was able to stay surprisingly calm. Today Dennen and I were able to go to an LDS church meeting here at the hospital. A member of the seventy said a few words about  how children's hospitals have numbers of ministering angels and are probably one of the closest places that we can get to heaven and feel God's presence. I started crying when he said those words because I felt those angels and God's love for all of the children here. I always used to think, "How can God allow little children to go through so much pain and suffering?" But I can honestly tell you that those angels and God will never once leave the sides of these innocent and perfect children. 

Finn's medical problems were not that serious compared to many of the children here, and I never really feared that we might loose him. The parents and children here are brave. I cannot even fathom how hard it must be for some of the families here. We are so blessed to have so many loving family members and friends that have asked what they can do for us during this time. Thank you so much!