During rounds on Tuesday, Peanut’s doctors were happy with how she was doing and decided it was time to send her home. As we packed up our things and put her in her stroller to walk out of the hospital, I don’t think Peanut was aware of what was going on – she had spent a lot of time the last few days in her stroller on walks to pass the time and this seemed like one more walk. That changed when she saw the car. She couldn’t get out of the stroller and into her car seat fast enough.

Peanut playing while waiting for her ride home.

Now that we’re home, it doesn’t mean that the surgery is completely behind us. Peanut still has several issues that we need to deal with: 1) her incision has a slight infection that requires daily attention, 2) her bottom is battling a grisly case of diaper rash, and 3) we need to get her eating back on track. Between the last 6 weeks of being sick and the surgery, Peanut’s weight has dropped below 18 pounds. We believe the reason for her recent sickness has been addressed, so it’s time for her to start growing again.

Additionally, we’d like to say thank you to everyone who dropped in, left gifts, sent notes, or simply called saying they were thinking of us during Peanut’s hospitalization. Your thoughts and prayers were truly appreciated.

Today is the final day of the 12th Annual Y105 Radiothon benefiting the University of Iowa Children’s Hospital through Children’s Miracle Network.

The following info is from UIChildrens.org:

KLYV (105.3 FM) and Children’s Miracle Network will host the radiothon from the Y105 studios in Dubuque and will be broadcasting live from 6 a.m. to 6 pm. November 7 and 8.

Radio personalities Chris Farber and Jeff Robb will share inspiring stories and interviews from children and families that have been treated at UI Children’s Hospital. To date, the radiothon has raised more than $740,000 in support of UI Children’s Hospital.

The toll free number for donations during the radiothon is 800-456-2772.

For information about the radiothon, visit y105music.com, or contact the Children’s Miracle Network at 319-467-3818.

The money raised by the radiothon goes directly to new pediatric research and treatments, kid-sized state-or-the-art equipment, hospital enhancements for a home-like atmosphere, and educational materials for patient families. It’s hard to walk into the UI Children’s Hospital without noticing some of the improvements made by the Children’s Miracle Network. Staying in a hospital is never fun, but the efforts put forth by the Children’s Miracle Network have made Peanut’s stays much more tolerable.

We fully intended to write another update much sooner than this…but with we’ve slipped into the “sleep when baby sleeps” mentality, which unfortunately for Peanut that means she isn’t sleeping well. 🙁 I actually began writing update #2 on Halloween, but with irregular sleeping patterns and focusing all our energy on Peanut when she’s awake, it didn’t allow for a good time to sit down and finish this post.

Well, here I am…VERY well rested and ready to bring you the happenings of the past few days. The one thing that I believe makes this a top tier children’s hospital (no they’re not paying us to say this) is that their focus is always on making sure the kids are happy and involved. Peanut may not be old enough to remember the Halloween celebration here at UIHC, but they pulled out all of the stops for these kiddos! Complete with nurses in costumes (101 Dalmatians theme – they even had a Korella De Ville), parade/trick-or-treat all around the hospital for the patients, music, goodies & gifts, etc. It was amazing to witness, and I have no doubt that each of those patients – even if for just a split second – took their mind off of the reason they were in the hospital, which was the whole point! Peanut wasn’t keen on wearing her baby Lion costume, so she wore her cute Halloween outfit from one of her grandparents. We joined the patient trick-or-treat already in progress when she woke from a little nap. I can only imagine what she thought of the combination of costumes while being on morphine 🙂 but I can tell you she was wide-eyed and content! Here are some photos from the trick-or-treat parade:

Peanut and Nurse Trang ready to start trick-or-treating!

Joining in the parade of patients! Notice all of the Dalmatians (nurses) around.

Peanut took time out of trick-or-treating for a photo-op with her surgical team:

Peanut and Dr. Shilyansky, Head of Pediatric Surgery & Peanut’s primary surgeon.

Peanut and her surgical Fellow & Residents. A great group of people…really they are so kind and personable!

In the evening we enjoyed looking at Peanut’s goofy siblings through picture messages sent by relatives.

The Honey Bee, The Princess, and The Ninja

Uncle Funny Man and his main squeeze Weather Girl brought Peanut her own Halloween basket complete with “special treats” just for her – since she can’t eat candy.

Peanut, Uncle Funny Man, Weather Girl!

Peanut reads her new books!

They also brought pizza for mom which was pretty darn good!!! Thanks so much!!!!!

In case you were wondering…Peanut accomplished her three goals…on Halloween! The big guy upstairs must have received an abundant amount of prayers for poop…because once she started, she didn’t stop! You can all stop praying for poop now…please! 🙂 She also began taking most of her pain medications by mouth (instead of IV), and she started having bottles & pedialyte.

On Friday, both of her IV’s that were placed during surgery went “bad”, so she had to have a new IV placed 🙁 She made the switch to all oral medications, including morphine, which didn’t sit well with her. The morphine made her vomit, so since Friday morning she has been on ONLY tylenol and ibuprofen, and she seems reasonably comfortable. We did get her very first smile post surgery…well, rather Curious George on IPTV got her first smile. The DH and I switched places late in the day on Friday…he needed his Peanut fix, and I needed sleep and to see my other three monkies. Dad got Peanut’s first giggle post surgery on Saturday, along with a pile of poop. I think at one point he changed 7 poopy diapers in 30 minutes! It isn’t that she is pooping an enormous amount each time, but with it her stool being liquidy or loose, it really irritates the skin. So as soon as she goes, even a little bit, it’s time for a diaper change and thick layer of special butt cream.

Peanut also had a small setback, as her incision has developed an infection. This afternoon they opened up part of her incision to drain the puss and relieve pressure. They will reassess in the morning. If it looks better, then antibiotics may not be needed to treat it. Peanut’s appetite is also not quite back up to speed. She is no where near where she was for volume of food pre-surgery. In fact, she is losing weight. So our next goal is for Peanut to eat and drink more!

Potato Boy, Sissy, Lulu and I came back down to Iowa City earlier today so I could switch places with the DH…and as you can imagine, Peanut was over the moon happy to see her siblings!

In the past roughly 50 hrs since surgery, Peanut has made great progress. I’ll admit, Tuesday was discouraging as she was in quite a bit of pain and slept a lot. She had a rough last night into early morning today. However, as the pictures below show…her recovery is going full speed ahead!

One of the nurses mentioned that she prefers working with children recovering from surgery rather than adults because children bounce back much quicker and are more pleasant patients. 🙂 I would have to agree after seeing Peanut’s progress today!

8am – Peanut hadn’t moved much aside from reaching for her dolly.

10am – With the help of her favorite 3J nurse, Trang, Peanut sat up for the first time post surgery. Not yet steady enough to sit alone. The morphine likely had a little to do with that!

3:30pm – Peanut is extremely content, sitting inclined watching cartoons.

5:45pm – Peanut goes for her 1st wagon ride post surgery. Halfway through the ride she sat herself up without help and rode the rest of the way sitting up. Waving and starting to jabber to other nurses and patients along the way.

8pm – Peanut is now able to pull herself up to standing without help!

What a difference 12 hours can make! She has had her epidural catheter and NG tube removed today, and I am most proud to report…she’s passing gas! 🙂 A good sign that her bowels are waking up!

Tomorrow’s goals: 1) Peanut may be able to restart oral medications & have some pedialyte. She has had nothing to eat or drink orally since 10:30am Monday morning. 2) Lower her morphine dosage and still stay comfortable. 3) POOP! However, the surgeon said that still may take a few days before she actually passes anything aside from gas.

So tonight before I go to bed, I am thanking God for her progress today…and praying for Poop.

As we mentioned in a previous post, Peanut was scheduled for major bowel surgery on the 28th (yesterday), and we’re happy to report, that it went as well as can be expected.

We (and her team of doctors) had three main goals to accomplish with by doing this surgery. 1) to “take down” the ostomy and reconnect the remaining small intestine to what’s left of her colon – the rectal stump. 2) recent contrast x-rays showed that Peanut’s small intestines had become very dilated in some parts – so this needed to be looked at and possibly surgically corrected with a bowel lengthening procedure. 3) To remove any scar tissue from the previous three abdominal surgeries. Scar tissue is one of the leading causes of intestinal blockages…so a little preventative internal maintenance was a must for her.

Surgery started about 1pm yesterday and finished at 6pm. She was in recovery for about an hour and a half before moving to one of the the pediatric inpatient floors to see all of her “nurse friends” that she had made with her last three inpatient stints here in September & October. We were greeted by several familiar faces. 🙂

All in all, the surgeons accomplished our three goals for Peanut…in a round about way. They had originally planned to use her old incision site, but instead at the beginning of surgery opted to use the stoma opening incision instead. I believe due to possible scar tissue complications with the old incision. They confirmed what the x-rays hinted at – that her small intestines were in fact quite dilated in some spots. They ended up having to remove just over 6 more inches of a dilated bowel loop that was essentially not functioning. There was also a partial blockage in that same area. So by removing this they were able to address most of the dilation issue. There is still some parts that are dilated – just not enough to be surgically corrected with a bowel lengthening procedure. They also believe with the removal of the dilated bowel, they (fingers crossed) solved the problem that was causing her intestinal bacterial overgrowth – which is what made her so sick the past two months. The big loop basically kept waste from passing through properly which became a breeding ground for too much bacteria. After that they were able to successfully reconnect the small intestine to her rectal stump. Next they removed scar tissue (abdominal adhesions) that they thought could pose future problems.

One minor hiccup that we’re keeping an eye on is with her pain management. The anesthesiologist placed the epidural thinking that they were still going to use the “old incision”. Since they used an incision that is about an inch lower than planned, she may not be getting the full effects or benefits of the epidural. She was pretty uncomfortable through the night, waking a lot, feverish, higher heart rate. They are supplementing, for now, with morphine and tylenol to get her to a more comfortable state.

We’re told that it could take a few days for the gut to “wake up” and work like it should. So we’ll meet with the surgeons and GI folks in rounds later this morning and hopefully lay out a more concrete plan for recovery, feeding, and pooping.

We have several close relatives helping out with Lulu, Potato Boy, and Sissy while we’re away…a HUGE thanks to you all!

Sissy was watching Peanut while the DW and I were finishing up some chores on Sunday morning. I normally don’t try to fully understand these things, but from what I’ve been told, Peanut found a comb left out by one of her older siblings and was ‘combing’ Sissy’s hair while she was sitting on the floor watching TV. It had to seem like a good idea to Sissy – keeping Peanut entertained while watching TV and being entertained herself.

It didn’t take long for Sissy to realize the error in her ways. Peanut wasn’t really combing Sissy’s hair, but rather moving the comb back and forth, while occasionally twisting and twirling it. No rhyme or reason to what she was doing – after all, she is only 15 months old. But, that really didn’t matter, I doubt a professional hair stylist could have created a rat’s nest as intricate as what Peanut had managed to fashion in 5 minutes.

After spending the first 15 minutes unsuccessfully trying to untangle the mess, the DW asked me for something to start cutting the comb with. A scissors wasn’t heavy enough and my suggested use of the hedge clippers wasn’t well received. Though it was a slow process, a side cutter pliers actually worked quit well at cutting away the comb without cutting any hair. (You can thank Sissy for that tip if you ever find yourself in a similar situation.)

After another thirty minutes of rubbing in conditioner while unraveling, snipping, pulling, and twisting, the comb was completely removed. Too bad that was only a part of the problem.

Clearly, we were seeing more humor in this than Sissy was. It was then off to the shower for Sissy – conditioner, comb, repeat… repeat… repeat….

In the end (two hours later), the entire debacle ended up costing Sissy some hair… not nearly as much was what she initially had invested, be enough she’ll think twice about handing a comb over to her younger sister again.

The DW and I were walking through Lowes one day when we noticed a good price on some basic white exterior paint. The exterior of the house is a cement-board-type siding that was probably installed in the 40’s and had never been painted. It needed it. So we threw 10 gallons of paint in the cart — that was over two years ago.

Cosmetically, painting the house was a priority. In reality, it wasn’t a priority until we had the new roof installed this spring and realized that the siding, as well as the roof, had been leaking all along. The abnormally dry weather we experienced during the first 18 months after we moved in didn’t allow for us to see the chronic leaks. We saw the water damage when we moved in, but were told the leaks were fixed… hmmm, maybe not. We had repaired the water damage and while it was dry there were no issues. Needles to say, this fall was earmarked for one project… the exterior. Vinyl siding – like we did with the dormers – would be ideal, but we don’t want to take that step until we have the garage added on – plus, we already own 10 gallons of paint.

So, where to start? Knowing that we were now water proofing instead of just painting, the first step involved re-caulking around all of the windows, any questionable siding seams, miscellaneous holes, and anything else that looked suspicious. Basically, every square inch of siding needed to be checked. Thankfully, since my dad is no longer watching Peanut on a daily basis he volunteered to tackle the task earlier this fall. After using almost two cases of silicon, things are considerably tighter.

With the cracks filled, it was time to break out the paint brushes.

Over the last few weekends – when not in the hospital with Peanut – we’ve slowly worked our way around the house as the weather permitted. You’d think rain would be the only real hamper on the project, but we’ve actually lost more time to the box elder bug infestation than rain. On the warm, sunny days, the bugs flock to the south side of the house making painting impossible.

Just a few more hours of decent, bug-free, weather and this will be one more project off the list.

I mentioned at the end of Wednesday’s post that anyone familiar with the workings of a hospital know that plans are subject to change and normally do… well guess what… Peanut is back home. While Peanut’s surgery needs to be done sooner rather than later, it’s not an emergency (which we are thankful for), and the UIHC Pediatric Surgery schedule is full of more emergent cases. Peanut’s surgery is now scheduled for October 28th and she’s doing too well to sit in the hospital for a week waiting for the surgery. So, back home we go.

All and all, this isn’t a bad deal if Peanut can stay healthy at home for the next few days. She’s more relaxed when she can play and move as she wants. The rest of the kiddos do better with everyone at home. And, it gives us a few days to prep for Peanut’s extended recovery stay after her surgery. There’s meals to be made and stashed in the freezer. Clothes and toiletries to be packed. Schedules to be juggled. You get the idea.

It’s starting to feel a bit too much like a pattern… Peanut got sick again over the weekend and ended up being readmitted to the UIHC. That makes it the third time in the last five weeks. This time though, things are slightly different.

During Peanut’s two prior stays, she’s tested positive for c. diff. Though there was some mixed opinions if Peanut could even get sick from c. diff, she was still treated as if it was a possible cause of her illness – which included contact quarantine in her hospital room.

This week, Peanut’s c. diff test results came back negative. Her doctors also have the results of a recent dye contrast scan of Peanut’s intestines that was taken at her check-up last week. The scan showed that her intestines have dilated becoming too wide in spots to function properly. This confirmed an alternative diagnose that Peanut was suffering from bacteria overgrowth in her intestines.

With all of this new information, Peanut’s GI doctor and surgeon now believe the best thing for Peanut is to go ahead with the surgery to reconnect her intestines to her rectum and address the issue of her dilated intestines and bacteria growth while they have her opened up and can physically see the issue and decide the best course of action. In the mean time, Peanut will stay at the UIHC on an IV to recover from the last five weeks as much as possible prior to the surgery. The great July and August growth spurt she experienced that took her up to just shy of 20 pounds has completely disappeared and she’s now back to 17 pounds. Three pounds may not seem like much to us, but for Peanut that translates to a loss of 15% of her body weight at a time when she should be steadily gaining.

As I mentioned earlier, Peanut tested negative for c. diff this week. Not only is that good news from a medical standpoint, but it also means her stay will be a little easier. With a negative test result, she’s no longer restricted to stay in her room. That means when she feels up to it she can leave her room and roam the hospital with her IV in tow. Since she’s still a little young to enjoy the toy room and company of the other kids, her favorite activity has quickly become wagon rides.

Much like last year, we are once again a house divided. The DW has set up camp with Peanut on a couch at the side of her bed while I try to maintain a routine for the rest of the kiddos. Early estimates are for Peanut to spend two or three weeks at the hospital once her surgery is complete. Knowing how bumps along the way can set things back, I’ll be thrilled if we can all spend Thanksgiving at home.

So that’s the plan for now. Any of you who have spent time in a hospital know that plans are always subject to change and normally do.

The chicks are now five weeks old. The newness has definitely worn off (as well as the cuteness factor),but the kiddos are still doing a great job taking care of them. Our original agreement was that I’d build the coop and teach Potato Boy and Sissy how to care for the birds on a daily basis and then the birds would be their responsibility (expect for the days Potato Boy and Sissy are with their dad). I finished the coop the weekend after the chicks arrived, taught the kiddos what they needed to do, and have stepped back.

So far it seems to be working. Each night after supper the kiddos head out to take care of the chicks. On the off days, Lulu and the DW are eager to fill in. I’ve gone a couple of 1 week stretches without even seeing the birds.

The birds seem to be fine, though at some point I may second guess getting all five Rhode Island Red hens – there’s no telling them apart, at least at this stage. When they were chicks it was fairly simple – 1 was smaller, 1 had darker fuzz, etc. That’s not the case now. Hopefully, that changes as the they mature.