Craziness

Well, I got back from Swaziland last night VERY well rested to find out that i had been *elected* to go to the heart institute early in the morning with Wesley (11 months old) to evaluate his heart murmur that all of a sudden started last week....and boy is it loud! We've had him for 6 months now and he has NEVER had this mumur before and hadn't been sick recently.  He has been a champ sleeper since we got him...ie asleep an astronomical amount of time for a baby both day and night, even now at 11 months.....

Anyway, Wes and I headed to my favorite (please read absolutely NO sarcasm here cause i, for once, mean it) medical place in town...the heart insitute.  And as i had thought/diagnosed/hypothesised it was a VSD (ventricular septal defect which is basically a small hole between in his heart).  I had guestimated he had it from birth and it was finally started to close and thus the diameter of the hole getting smaller, creating a bigger force of blood being pushed through, making a large murmurish sound when i listened to his chest last week.  They did an ekg to check the rythm of his heart and checked his oxygenation level and then the doctor evaluated him and confirmed that she thought it was a VSD.....so we are off the the heart institute on friday morning to confirm with an echocardiagram (ultrasound of the heart) to make sure that's what we're dealing with and then we are going to pray it just closes on up by itself before it's 2.  Hopefully that will help with his sleepy/tiredness!

Fernanda (introduced to you last blog) is doing MUCH better this week.  On Wednesday we were having a lot of trouble with her.  The tias couldn't get her to eat enough and she was starting to get dehydrated and her kidneys started shutting down.....so she didn't pee for 16 hrs and her hands and face were getting all puffy.  She looked pretty miserable.  Well, I took her to homegroup for the missionaries and well all prayed over her as a team at 7:30 and when i went back to check on her at 9:30 she had peed a lot and took her entire feeding (little by little out of a syringe, but done all the same) over an hour and kept it down.    So much to my suprise when i went to check on her this morning....We stopped vomitting, took all our feedings on our own, peed and pooped appropriately (after intervention with prayer and medicine) and the swelling in her legs is almost all gone.  She's even started reaching out to people and for things.  Still no emotions shown or crying and she can't push up from laying to sitting even, but we are getting there bit by bit.  Now we are just trying to get rid of her snake like shedding of the skin off her legs in giant sheets.  Poor tot.  Tomorrow we start with regular powdered formula (full strength) and pray her little tummy can digest and handle it.  Continue to keep her in your prayers!

Little baby Alberto (also introduced last blog) has a bad case of (what i think to be) RSV (respitory syncytial virus)....he's 5 months old and not liking all the snot so much.  He does seem to be on the bend a bit today, but keep him in your prayers as the snot disappears, he starts to breath easier, doesn't need nebulizers or  chest pysiotherapy to break up all the mucous and finally gets back to playful smiley alberto!  I used my mad NICU skills tonight to elevate his head of bed and secure him in a tight and developmentally perfect position with 3 blanket rolls to keep him from rolling over or scootching down so he could breathe easier all night.  I knew they'd come in a bit handy here sometime.

Ok off to rest after a LONG day with NO coffee.  Next blog post:  Swaziland adventures and pictures.  Stay tuned.