I've been meaning to put this up for a while. I think it's really funny.
Old, Grizzled Third-Party Candidate May Steal Support From McCain
You Expect Me To Talk?
I've been meaning to write this post for about a week now. Last week, when Lizard Loaf was still in the hospital, they did a chest X-ray on him, and it was a pretty crazy situation. They gave Plainbellied and I lead aprons to wear and asked us to hold him down on the table while they took the images. When they turned on the machine, somekind of alignment guide came on, which was a red laser line down the center of his body from head to toe. I know it was just an alignment guide, but we had to pin him down and he was uncomfortable and then this laser came on. Ever since, I've had a scene from Goldfinger in my mind. Today I took the time to find it on Youtube and share it. My favorite exchange comes right at the end of this short clip. I hope you enjoy it.
More Lizard Loaf
Here's another picture of Lizard Loaf. He's doing well here at home, though the oxygen machine is driving me crazy. It's a constant hum in the background. Hopefully we'll only need it a few more weeks and he can come off it.
Today's Funny Clip
I found this clip from a John McCain speech today. He's trying to respond to a comment from an Obama supporter who called Western Pennsylvania "racist." As you'll see, McCain mangled it, and I think it's funny.
Home at Last
Yesterday afternoon, we were able to take Lizard Loaf home from the hospital. Out of all the possible outcomes he could have faced, this was probably the best. It turns out that he is aspirating liquid into his lungs when he eats, which explains the fluid in the lungs, which explains his low oxygen levels, which might explain his body temperature drop and his other problems. He's still on oxygen for now, but we hope that by adjusting his food (thickening it so he doesn't aspirate it), we can resolve the aspiration problem. Now if we can just get the existing fluid out of his lungs. . .
For now, it's good news, and we are happy that our boy can be at home with us, instead of at the hospital hooked up to monitors. More as things progress!
For now, it's good news, and we are happy that our boy can be at home with us, instead of at the hospital hooked up to monitors. More as things progress!
Pro-life and Pro-Obama
There was an interesting article in today's LA Times by a Catholic Obama supporter. He addressed a lot of my own issues, and I wanted to share the article with you. Basically, he asks whether someone who is pro-life, as I am, can really support Barack Obama. I think he made a good case that yes, you can. I know most of those who read this blog are pro-life, just like me. So it might speak to you in the same way it did to me.
Lizard Loaf Update 2
Today was a very busy day, and I think I should post some kind of update. Lizard Loaf now has his own team of doctors to look after him. Today he was seen by an ENT, several cardiologists, a pulmonary specialist, and his primary care pediatrician. I'm not sure if there were more, since I had to go to work today and make sure that I got a few things done. I might not have listed them all. We're at a teaching hospital, so each doctor has his own team of interns, residents, and med students as well, so I'm confident that everything possible is being done for our boy. Here's the long and short of it.
There are two distinct issues that they are trying to assess: 1) Lizard Loaf is exhibiting signs of hypothyroidism, which if left untreated can lead to a significant increase in mental retardation. 2) His blood-oxygen level is low, so he is on oxygen and they want to figure out how to help him breath on his own. As frustrating as this entire experience has been, I'm grateful that we have such good doctors around to treat our boy, and I'm confident that we are getting close to some kind of resolution.
Oh, yeah, the other doctor who came was an endocrinologist, who is looking into the thyroid thing. He thinks we should wait a few weeks and retest, since sometimes newborns have a natural abnormality in their hormone levels, and in two weeks we'll have a better sense of what's going on. The levels aren't outrageously off. They're just playing it safe, and I'm happy for that.
The oxygen issue is a bit trickier, since Lizard Loaf has a couple of things going on. First, he has an artery growing across his trachea, and it might be constricting things. Having seen the specialists, we are now confident that this isn't a problem, which is good because it might have required surgery to repair. There is also some possibility that he has a heart problem. When babies are in the whom there are some built-in "shortcuts" for moving blood to the body before the lungs work. One of them is a flap between the two sides of the heart. They did an echocardiogram on the boy after he was born, and while there is no evidence of a "hole in the heart," it looks like the flap hadn't closed up yet, and blood was flowing both ways across the barrier. The long and short of it is that they are going to check his heart again to make sure it has now closed up. Most likely, it will now be fine, and it still won't explain the oxygen problem.
Now then, the most likely candidate at this point is aspirated fluid in his lungs, which got there either during childbirth of from reflux. If it got there during childbirth, then it isn't going to recur most likely, and as soon as we can get the fluid out of his lungs he'll be fine. If it's reflux, then we'll have to treat the reflux with medication and other things until it goes away and there is the outside chance he might need surgery to repair something. I'm not willing to speculate about that.
The long and short of all this is that the likely culprits have been narrowed down significantly, and Lizard Loaf's pediatrician here at the hospital is now starting to feel confident we're getting at the answer. Consequently, he's started to loosen up when we ask about going home. Unless the boy needs the reflux test, we should be headed home tomorrow afternoon after the echocardiogram. I don't want to jinx it, so I'll stop there, but I'm getting secretly excited inside.
Now that you've read through my 1:30 AM musings on Lizard Loaf's health, I'll reward you with a short video of him sucking on his own lips. It's a few days old, but I really like it still. Make sure you have the volume on to appreciate the noises.
There are two distinct issues that they are trying to assess: 1) Lizard Loaf is exhibiting signs of hypothyroidism, which if left untreated can lead to a significant increase in mental retardation. 2) His blood-oxygen level is low, so he is on oxygen and they want to figure out how to help him breath on his own. As frustrating as this entire experience has been, I'm grateful that we have such good doctors around to treat our boy, and I'm confident that we are getting close to some kind of resolution.
Oh, yeah, the other doctor who came was an endocrinologist, who is looking into the thyroid thing. He thinks we should wait a few weeks and retest, since sometimes newborns have a natural abnormality in their hormone levels, and in two weeks we'll have a better sense of what's going on. The levels aren't outrageously off. They're just playing it safe, and I'm happy for that.
The oxygen issue is a bit trickier, since Lizard Loaf has a couple of things going on. First, he has an artery growing across his trachea, and it might be constricting things. Having seen the specialists, we are now confident that this isn't a problem, which is good because it might have required surgery to repair. There is also some possibility that he has a heart problem. When babies are in the whom there are some built-in "shortcuts" for moving blood to the body before the lungs work. One of them is a flap between the two sides of the heart. They did an echocardiogram on the boy after he was born, and while there is no evidence of a "hole in the heart," it looks like the flap hadn't closed up yet, and blood was flowing both ways across the barrier. The long and short of it is that they are going to check his heart again to make sure it has now closed up. Most likely, it will now be fine, and it still won't explain the oxygen problem.
Now then, the most likely candidate at this point is aspirated fluid in his lungs, which got there either during childbirth of from reflux. If it got there during childbirth, then it isn't going to recur most likely, and as soon as we can get the fluid out of his lungs he'll be fine. If it's reflux, then we'll have to treat the reflux with medication and other things until it goes away and there is the outside chance he might need surgery to repair something. I'm not willing to speculate about that.
The long and short of all this is that the likely culprits have been narrowed down significantly, and Lizard Loaf's pediatrician here at the hospital is now starting to feel confident we're getting at the answer. Consequently, he's started to loosen up when we ask about going home. Unless the boy needs the reflux test, we should be headed home tomorrow afternoon after the echocardiogram. I don't want to jinx it, so I'll stop there, but I'm getting secretly excited inside.
Now that you've read through my 1:30 AM musings on Lizard Loaf's health, I'll reward you with a short video of him sucking on his own lips. It's a few days old, but I really like it still. Make sure you have the volume on to appreciate the noises.
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