I can't believe it's been nearly a month since I last updated. The days and weeks just seem to fly by and I don't have much to say any more.
Currently our main issues are with ears. In my last update, Joe's right eardrum has perforated. A couple of weeks later, on the same day both Joe and Harry's left ears perforated so were once again on antibiotics, and after a horrible night with Joe last night, his left eardrum has perforated again today and he is back on medicine to treat it.
I feel so sorry for him. He was obviously in lots of pain and was finding it difficult to feed and sleep but as soon as it popped the crying stopped. The discharge was much more bloody this time and the dr couldn't really get a good look as there was too much pus in there. If it happens again Joe will be referred to an ENT specialist who will investigate things a bit more thoroughly.
Today was the babies follow-up with the pediatricians to assess how they are doing generally. They were so, so good, especially Joe who was uncomfortable with his ears and has a cold. They were both smiley and happy and showed everyone how wonderful twins are. They were a real credit. It was especially nice as it was one of the nurses from NICU doing the clinic, not one of my favourites, but it was lovely to be able to show how well they have done.
The doctor seemed very pleased with how happy and content the babies are but confirmed our suspicions that all is not perfect with Harry. There is some degree of hypertonia which is high muscle tone which basically means that he is very stiff and doesn't bend his torso easily. We noticed this almost as soon as we were discharged from the hospital and I may even have mentioned it on here before. Positive signs are that he doesn't keep his fists clenched all the time and is able to get his hands to his mouth. He and Joe will both he assessed fully in a couple of weeks by the Child Development Team who will give us exercises and advice on the best way to get him moving. Harry also is being referred for a hip scan as he was breech when he was born. The dr thought he felt his left hip clicking a bit so just wants it checked out.
A referral to the dietician was talked about but I want to hold off on that for a while to see if practice will help him improve his eating. At the moment he is unable to move food from the front of his mouth to the back so he can swallow it and instead he just lets it all dribble out of his mouth which makes for lots of mess and frustration.
Joe is doing okay, although very obviously delayed. He is also able to get his hands in his mouth and likes to suck on his thumb now but is not even close to being able to roll over.
The children go back to school on Wednesday so hopefully our life will get back into some kind of routine.
Friday, 27 August 2010
Wednesday, 25 August 2010
Monday, 2 August 2010
Joe's first readmission
I was aiming to get through the rest of the year without a re-admissions to hospital. Alas, Joe let the side down on Friday after having a perforated eardrum so we were admitted overnight so they could monitor him.
Amazingly he was absolutely fine - no pain, no fever, no excessive crying etc. Typically we were 3 hours away from home, visiting our friends Karen and Chris who also have twins, when I first noticed something was wrong. I took him out of his carseat and he had yucky green pus coming from his ear. I wasn't too concerned as he was so happy and smiley and just thought he maybe had a bit of an ear infection and I'd stop off at the hospital on the way home and get his some antibiotics to clear it up.
David rang the hospital to let them know I'd be going down in a couple of hours. They scared me by saying a pussy ear could be very dangerous in such a small baby and the infection could quickly spread around his body making him very sick and posioning his blood! To add to my panic the three hour journey turned into nearly 5 hours due to an accident.
Upon arrival at the hospital we were given our own room and told to make ourselves comfortable. The dr who initially assessed Joe thought that the chances were that he'd need IV antibiotics to prevent the infection spreading and therefore a few days stay in hospital. Luckily the senior dr on duty is an ENT specialist and decided that as long as he remained clinically stable overnight, without spiking a temperature then oral antibiotics would be okay as a preventative measure, but in actual fact, because the eardrum had perforated and was draining then he'd probably be fine without any intervention at all.
Everyone was amazed that he wasn't in, and hadn't been in any extreme pain. We were discharged on Saturday afternoon and has been his usual cheery self throughout it all. I wish I was as cheery when I got back to the car and found a £70 parking ticket for my troubles. After a night in a chair with no sleep, nothing to eat or drink in nearly a day and missing out on an afternoon planned with our friends Gaby and Dai and their little treasure William, it just about rounded the day off nicely.
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