We went to see Jagger 's pulmonolgist today. I was pretty excited that I was able to get an appointment with her so quickly. Usually she is booked 4 months in advance. The recent hospitalizations made it very clear that we need to do something differently to care for his lungs. It has been almost a year since we saw Dr. B. we hate to take him out of the house for doctor visits where usually nothing gets accomplished or we learn nothing new but this one was important. We really needed her help to figure out a plan to keep him from having all these pneumonia episodes. No one else has been really helpful with that. Our hospice solution to everything is increase his medicine doses for the narcotics ( eg. Methadone and Valium). I finally told them we disagree with this approach if his pain and discomfort is due to and infection. By now Sebastien and I can usually tell when he's coming down with something and just increasing his Meds will not help his breathing or irritation if the underlying condition/ cause is an infection and will not keep us out of the hospital. This is what I call tunnel vision! Just because he is in hospice or has a terminal illness does not prevent him from getting other infections which can and should be treated.
Dr B. gave us some good ideas and came up with a plan to help clear his lungs and heal them! I does involve more Meds but all inhalation so that's ok.
I was very much looking forward to this appointment expecting her to give us some answers/guidance. Which she did! She is also very knowledgable about mito which helps tremendously. Overall a great visit. Let's see if her plan works!
Friday, February 22, 2013
"oh happy day, oh happy day"!
Jaggy has been smiling non stop since we got home from The hospital this past sunday. He was actually also pretty content in his car seat in the way home.
Sometimes Jagger smiles and laughs after his Myclonic seizures but this time he was smiling just like that. He would see me and smile:)
Sometimes Jagger smiles and laughs after his Myclonic seizures but this time he was smiling just like that. He would see me and smile:)
Thursday, February 21, 2013
To bathe or not to bathe that is still the question!
I think we need a new bathing solution for Jaggy. What do you guys think? Lol
Trying to coordinate getting a bath chair from our DME company and Medicaid. Oh joy. Let's see how many denial letters they will send this time. Still dealing with payment issues for his stander.
Trying to coordinate getting a bath chair from our DME company and Medicaid. Oh joy. Let's see how many denial letters they will send this time. Still dealing with payment issues for his stander.
Monday, February 18, 2013
Hospital stay #s 14, 15 & 16 but who's counting. Lol
My new years resolution for 2013 was to reduce our hospital stays to 2 total per year. Well we already passed this number by mid February. I guess I should think about a new resolution:)
Jagger had been hospitalized twice for aspiration pneumonia and atelectasis and once for rhinovirus. The second aspiration pneumonia was bc we went home too fast after his rhinovirus. He kept vomiting for three days after every feeding despite only half strength. Lesson learned. Either we stay longer and wait till he tolerates his feeds for a few days adjusting up and down while keeping him hydrated on IV but risking further exposure to other bugs or go home on IV which is another challenge in itself bc our hospice doesn't provide IV fluid. We are trying to negotiate with them. Poor boo. His lungs need a rest!!
Since we were in the ICU at the end of January, we had to posptoned our trip to Akron for the EPI trial. We are schedule to go at the beginning of March now. It will be the "final" visit for the trial, but we still have to go every 3 months or so for follow up visits as long as we want to stay on the drug and it has not been approved by FDA (probably until end 2014 at earliest). We are trying to work with the team in Akron, to have 2 of the 4 yearly follow up done in Atlanta, that would be a tremendous help for us!
I have to say though finally after 15 stays folks at the hospital are finally starting to get things together. They follow our instructions, warmly welcome our ER protocol and love our two page medicine sheet. We no longer have to say anything. Nurse comes in and automatically asks about our medicine sheet. Either she heard about it from another nurse or remembered from last time! I guess we have made quite an impression! With over 30 doses or so a day you have to have things written down! Anyway they love it! Our instruction/ medicine sheet consist of two pages which are laminated/ in a plastic sheet protector. One has a table which lists his medicines by time and dose. The other sheet lists all the Meds together by total dose per day and bulleted instructions regarding his feeding schedule, and other important information regarding his care. We developed this sheet as a quick reference for our nanny or anyone else who would have to care of him in the event shall anything happen to Sebastien or myself. I am also working on a true care manual but needed a cliff note version for immediate care.
Jagger had been hospitalized twice for aspiration pneumonia and atelectasis and once for rhinovirus. The second aspiration pneumonia was bc we went home too fast after his rhinovirus. He kept vomiting for three days after every feeding despite only half strength. Lesson learned. Either we stay longer and wait till he tolerates his feeds for a few days adjusting up and down while keeping him hydrated on IV but risking further exposure to other bugs or go home on IV which is another challenge in itself bc our hospice doesn't provide IV fluid. We are trying to negotiate with them. Poor boo. His lungs need a rest!!
Since we were in the ICU at the end of January, we had to posptoned our trip to Akron for the EPI trial. We are schedule to go at the beginning of March now. It will be the "final" visit for the trial, but we still have to go every 3 months or so for follow up visits as long as we want to stay on the drug and it has not been approved by FDA (probably until end 2014 at earliest). We are trying to work with the team in Akron, to have 2 of the 4 yearly follow up done in Atlanta, that would be a tremendous help for us!
I have to say though finally after 15 stays folks at the hospital are finally starting to get things together. They follow our instructions, warmly welcome our ER protocol and love our two page medicine sheet. We no longer have to say anything. Nurse comes in and automatically asks about our medicine sheet. Either she heard about it from another nurse or remembered from last time! I guess we have made quite an impression! With over 30 doses or so a day you have to have things written down! Anyway they love it! Our instruction/ medicine sheet consist of two pages which are laminated/ in a plastic sheet protector. One has a table which lists his medicines by time and dose. The other sheet lists all the Meds together by total dose per day and bulleted instructions regarding his feeding schedule, and other important information regarding his care. We developed this sheet as a quick reference for our nanny or anyone else who would have to care of him in the event shall anything happen to Sebastien or myself. I am also working on a true care manual but needed a cliff note version for immediate care.
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