Two days after coming home, the home nurse came to the house to check on Joshua and I. She was a little concerned that Joshua looked very yellow. I guess I hadn't really noticed. She took a blood sample and said they would contact me later that afternoon to let me know what we needed to do.
That afternoon, I got the call that his billirubin level was very high and that I needed to take him back to the hospital to be readmitted. It was very hard leaving my other Boys behind, again.
Joshua was placed under three phototherepy lights. I couldn't get him out but to feed him (bottles at this time) and to change his diaper. Very hard seeing my baby behind plastic and I couldn't hold him like I wanted to. With lots of prayer, I was able to hold it together. I spent my time watching him, holding his little hand and pumping breastmilk to feed to him. I did what I could to care for him to pass the time.
Our second day there, the pediatrician came in to check Joshua. It was at that time she detected a heart murmur. She couldn't really tell us to much, but since we were at the hospital already, we would see a pediatric cardiologist the next morning.
The next morning the pediatric cardiologist from Children's came in to talk to me. She said that Joshua had a Ventricular Septal Defect (VSD). She wouldn't be able to tell us the extent of it until an echo-cardiogram was done on him. She told me what to watch for that would indicate a problem. She wanted to see him at Children's in 4 weeks. The appointment was scheduled for April 11, 2011.
That afternoon, Joshua was released and was back home!
When he was 9 days old, he went to his pediatrician for his regular one week visit. His Pediatrician was still concerned about the jaundice and sent us to have blood work done. He was also concerned that Joshua was loosing weight so he wanted us to come back in 4 days for a weight check. The results of the billirubin level came back high again so I was to try and increase his bottle intake and take him back in two days for another blood sample. Two days later, it was still going up so Joshua was switched to formula only for 24 hours.
The next day was St. Patrick's Day. Nothing was really going on at home and I was happy that we would actually be staying home for the day. Dearest came in from work and noticed that Joshua was having a difficult time breathing. Again, I hadn't really noticed it being different. So he called the pediatrician just to ask them about it. Of course, they wanted us to come in. So off Joshua and I go, back to the pediatrician. Third time that week.
We saw a different doctor in the practice. He wasn't sure what to do with Joshua because his oxygen was a little low so he called Children's hospital and talked to the cardiologist. They both decided it was best to have Joshua looked at that day.
Dearest and I take Joshua to Children's. They were wonderful getting us in there without hardly a wait at all! An echocardiogram and EKG was done. He did great during both test.
The cardiologist that he seen while in the hospital came in and talked to us. It was verified that he did have a VSD and that it was a medium sized on. Medium sized ones are hard to predict because they could either close on their own or they could require more medical intervention. Again, we were told what to watch for and sent back home. At least this time though, we knew more what we were dealing with.
The next day, Joshua and I headed out for another billirubin check. We got to skip the weight check because he had been weighed the day before and he had started gaining his weight back. We got the results back that his levels were on their way back down again so we didn't need to do anymore blood samples. YEAH! I was a happy Mommy! I've been very happy to be home with the little guy for almost 2 weeks now without having to see a doctor.
So now we are just waiting until April 11 to go back to the Heart Clinic at Children's for another fallow up.
