Speed Bump

Over the past three weeks, as Henry has been rolling along in his recovery, Paige and I have done our best to keep our expectations in check. HLHS is a serious condition. We know Henry will encounter difficulties, so we try to remain as prepared for them as we can.

Today, we hit a speed bump. This morning Henry had - there's no real polite way of saying this - a bloody stool. Now it is not uncommon for healthy babies to have some blood in their stools on occasion, and there are a number of perfectly rational and harmless causes for this. Henry is not a healthy baby, however. Kids with a single heart ventricle are at risk for a number of more serious issues, primarily caused by a lack of oxygen to parts of their digestive tracts. 

At this point, the doctors and nurses believe that whatever has caused this will work itself out with a couple of days of "bowel rest". This means feedings have been suspended since 7:00 am Friday morning. So far, lab work and x-rays have not shown us anything to think this is a more serious issue. 

Even though Henry appears to be doing well otherwise, he is not taking the news of no food very well, and has been quite upset all evening. Since it will be a couple of days before he will get proper food again (he is getting some IV fluids), and since his NG-tube was irritating him, the feeding tube has been temporarily removed. For the first time since New Year's Day, we get to see Henry's full face:

 

In an abundance of caution, we have relocated back to the PICU for at least the weekend. If the diapers clean up over the next day, we may be able to resume feedings through the NG-tube on Sunday. The goal is to return to the recovery floor as soon as possible, but we will simply have to wait on Henry. Hopefully, this first speed bump is merely that, and we will pick up the pace shortly.