Sorry it's been a few days since I've written, but it's been a bit crazy. Big news first.... WE ARE HOME!!!! (Or at least home at my parents place while they are in Hawaii). The results of Zoe's Cardiac Catheter on Friday just showed that her pressures are indeed high and that she didn't respond particuarly well to Nitric or oxygen, so the next planf attatck is to strat her on the drug Bosentan and see what happens over the next few months. Hopefully the combination of the viagra and Bosentan will do something to relieve the pressures. In the mean time we are supposed to treat Zoe like a normal kid and start a normal life with her, so here we are. We got discharged from Seattle Children's on Monday night and made it home by about 7:00. Jason and I had spent the previous couple days learning how to give Zoe her feedings with the feeding pumps and how to give her medication. We also had to learn how to put in her feeding tube through her nose, scary but not too hard to do and definetly a two personj ob!! At about 5:00 on Monday we loaded Zoe into her carseat and walked outside with her, it was such a crazy, emotional, scary moment- sometimes I think we though we would never get here. Zoe was in awe of everything, she got to feel her first rain drops on her face (not so happy about that) and feel what wind and trees look like. It was a long scary trip back across the water but ZOe did great- she stayed awake the whole time. Home is a bit chaotic right now, we literally just dropped everything on the floor at my parents and tried to get Zoe settled in. Since it was a rather sudden discharge, we had nothing set up at home. Jason and I have spent the last two nights sleeping on the floor in the rec room with Zoe in the bassinet. There is still so much to take care of for her, We have a 50' oxygen cord that is hooked to a huge tank , so we can pretty much get everywhere in the house as long as the cord doesn't get stuck. Teh feeding pump has to be moved from place to place depending on where I have Zoe. Her pulse oximeter, which measures her oxygen level, we are only using at night. It's funny how scary this all is, yet at the same time since I have had three months to watch her in the hospital,, I know her oxygen levels are fine and it actually doesn't freak me out too much to not have her oximeter on during the day. Jason and I are still trying to figure out some sort of schedule for the evening feeds, it's hard for one person to do it all because each feed requires movign machinery, not moving Zoe too much, so she doesn't throw up. It's about a 70 minute process for each feed and you have to be aawake for most of it to make sure she doesn't throw up and then the machine has to be cleaned for the next feed. We'll figure it ot eventually- everyone does right ?
We had Zoe's first meeting with her pediatric doctor on Tuesday. They needed to meet her and take all her basics because we will be going to see him once a week for quite a while just to make sure she is growing well and breathing well.Zoe wore her political statement in honor of yesterday (YEAH!!) She seems to be doing greatat home, she is constanty checking everything out and seems totally intrigued by all the lights and noises. Her cousins were finally able to see her through the glass door.
Now back to Zoe's next feeding and an attempt to get organized. Thank you all so much for all your help and prayers!!