Thursday, October 8, 2009

Home Now


Liam is home now. As of about twenty minutes ago its been 1 full week of time at home. In his 9 & 1/2 months of life he has been home a total of 23 days. Its strange to say because he's got so much more equipment and complications but its a bit easier this time around. He's safer with his trach and vent. We don't have to worry so much about his breathing anymore now that his airway is secure and his breathing is maintained with a ventilator.


Liam would sleep through the night if we let him. Secretions that build up in his trach need to be suctioned out every few hours so his mother and I take shifts. I stay up watching him until about 3:30am and then The Wife relieves me and she takes over. It works for now.

The hard part is the home nursing. Strangers in the house and helping with Liam's care for up to 12 hours a day can be more stressful and uncomfortable than I thought. We have spent the past 9 months watching nurses take care of our boy and now that he's home we do not like watching it continue. Sure the oxygen tanks, the suction rig, the ventilator and the feeding pump can be a lot to handle but Karin and I are able. We work hard making sure that we know everything we can about Liam's care and find it strange that so many nurses tell us that we are the exception in that way and not the rule. What parent wouldn't want to be involved in any and all aspects of their child's care?

Today's nurse just left after a very manageable and helpful 6 hour shift. As far as I know there will not be another until tomorrow morning but sometimes they just show up. As much as I don't like some strange person in the house it is helpful to have someone qualified come over so that Karin and I can do laundry, the dishes and other household chores. When there's no nurse nothing of that sort gets done. Although I must admit that the house has never been cleaner. Having so many people in and out has forced me to pick up after myself like I never have before.

In non-Liam news, well, there is no non-liam news yet. We watched Coraline the other night and I absolutely loved it. I am very sorry that I didn't see it in the theater in 3-d.

Well Liam just woke up from a very short nap. He's teething now and very cranky. I must attend to the boy because he is now the boss of me. When we were there we used to say "there are no spoiled kids in the NICU" Now that he's home I'll change it to "there are no spoiled kids attached to ventilators" whatever Liam wants, Liam gets and right now he wants to be held. Which is good because I want to hold him.

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