Baby Kameron

Cameron came off of his ventilator successfully on Sunday at 11:30 a.m. and is doing well thus far. He is now using a CPAP (nasal oxygen) and is tolerating it well. He will have an echocardiogram tomorrow to see if his heart murmur cleared up. Docs still say that he is doing remarkably well and they can't believe he is so young and so strong. He is down to 1 lb 6 oz due to fluid loss, but doc says this is normal . He ate his first meal 2/19/07 at 5 pm. Yum Yum

As of 2/21/07 Docs are treating baby Cam for a heart murmur, this is his second round of medicine for it. Waiting for first BM. Eating 1cc every 3 hours. Daddy got to hold me while the nurse changed my sheets!!

Just a small update on Cameron. Today the doctor's checked him again for a heart murmur and they detected that the medication they were using to close the hole did not work. He began having multiple episodes of apnea (where he quits breathing) and they decided to put him back on the ventilator to assist him during those episodes. therefore, he was transferred to Children's hospital where he will undergo surgery tomorrow (2/23/07) to close the hole and treat the murmur. The doctor says that this is a common, every day procedure, but please keep us in your prayers tomorrow as we are worried about the little guy.

Children's hospital visiting hours are 8a. - 8p. anyone wanting to visit him, other than grandparents, has to be accompanied by either me or Greg. We are currently staying at Ronald McDonald house next to children's in room 308. Directions to children's: i-77 n to i-70 w then exit 102 (which is Cole st.) at end, turn left onto Ohio then right onto mooberry follow to 18th and turn left then either follow signs to visitor's parking garage or turn on to children's drive and follow around to Ronald McDonald house (if coming here first, please buzz at the security gate and let them know you're here to visit us). Please call upon arriving in Columbus so we can arrange to meet you somewhere. Greg's cell 304-588-8640 and Ann's cell 304-494-0227. if we don't answer either, we are in the nicu, please come up and let the staff know you are here to visit cam and they will let us know you're here.

well...cam's surgery yesterday went well. the docs said that as soon as he put the clip on the hole, the baby's blood pressure went up. today he hasn't had a great day...but i'm not sure if it's related to his surgery or the ditzy nurse that he had this morning.

they started weaning him off of his pain medication and when she repositioned him she put him on the side where his incision is. then she left him and went to lunch without telling anyone she was leaving and he didn't have anyone watching him. when we got there his blood pressures were really low and stayed that way for about 3 hours. the whole time we were visiting with him, she never came over to check on his monitors!!! let me tell you i was not a happy mama.

at shift change the new nurse agreed to move him to his belly and we just talked to her a few minutes ago and she said he is doing well. she did his 8 p.m. care and she said that he had his eyes open and tolerated her dealing with him. he didn't act like he liked her messing with him, but he didn't drop any of his vitals.

just a quick note to let you all know. cam was moved back to osu hospital yesterday. he is recovering well from his surgery. he had to be moved last night to make room for another child who was more critical than him. he should come off his ventilator again today and return to CPAP (nasal oxygen). otherwise, he is doing fine and the doctor said that we may get to start holding him by the weekend.

Cameron is doing very well now. He had a little stress yesterday, but he had a lot of visitors. He is up to a 13 cc feeding every three hours. Today he got his PIC (i.v.) line out and was taken off of all i.v. fluids because he is now eating enough through his feeding tube.

The nurse put him in one of the t-shirts that auntie Kristall got him. He looked soooo cute, but he swims in the t-shirt. The doctor stopped us in the hallway the other day and said that the only problems that it seems we're going to have to worry about are his gaining weight and getting off of the oxygen assistance.

Cam had a blood transfusion today to help with his oxygen and blood count. Keep your fingers crossed!!

Cameron FINALLY got his weight to 2 lbs. 0.5 oz. last night. He currently is 14" long. He had lab work done yesterday, which all came back normal, so no more blood transfusions for now. He also had another head ultrasound...no brain bleeds. (which means, still no signs of cerebal pulsey, etc.)

He was awake for a while today while I was there. He has been doing fine on his feedings and shows some signs of a possible umbilical hernia. However, if it is a hernia, it is a very small one, and may go away on its own. Yet another preemie side effect. If it doesn't, we'll just keep an eye on it for now, and hopefully it won't become anything serious. I swear he changes more and more every day. His hair is turning more red and blonde than brown. He's staying awake for longer periods of time, and having less and less "spells" of apnea.

He is down to 26% oxygen (21% is room air). The doctors said that they may try to put him on a nasal cannula (adult nose oxygen) in the next couple of weeks. Otherwise, everything is going very well. Just thought I'd update you for the day.

Well...Cam's breathing problems look to have been a silly mistake. We couldn't figure out why all of a sudden he was requiring more oxygen than normal. Well, his meter that measures out the oxygen that he's getting was broken. He was technically getting way less oxygen than what it said and when the doctors/nurses tried to turn it down farther, he wasn't getting hardly anything. So that's why he wasn't cooperating. We got a new meter, and he's breathing well at a lot lower rate than what we had originally thought.

Also, his eyes got checked again today. The prayers must be working because there was absolutely no progression of the retinopathy. He still has 4-6 more weeks before he's "out of the woods", but the doctor said at this point there will be no surgery. So keep up the praying and hopefully we'll be home soon.

He's up to at least 2 bottles a day. Getting an ounce every 3 hours, and eating like his daddy. His weight today was 3 lbs 10 1/2 oz (1655 grams) and he was 16.5" long. Must have had a growth spurt in length this week. Some of his preemie onesies (the Gerber brand--smaller than normal) are getting tight on him. Will post new pictures sometime this weekend. (On my myspace account) Thanks again for all of the prayers & support.

He will have to be transferred back to Children's hospital and re-intubated (ventilator) for the surgery. I'm not sure how long they will leave him on the vent, but from what I hear it's only for the surgery and until he wakes up from the anesthesia.

I hate that he has to have this done because now it's going to slow him going home. He will have to come off the ventilator again, and start eating from a bottle again, and everything. It just seems that he is going back to square one. Please say an extra little prayer for him over the next couple of days for me.

Thanks.

4/30

FINALLY!!! Cameron came home on May 10, 2007. His eye surgery went well, and he's had two follow-ups, which were normal. He will have another eye appointment in September to see if he requires corrective glasses and if he does, he will get them at that time.

Other than a small stay in the hospital for vomiting a couple of weeks ago (which turned out to be nothing), he has done very well. He did not come home on any machines or oxygen! He just got switched to regular formula. He has started babbling more and more, and is trying harder every day to roll over. He is holding his head up very well, and aside from a few small motor skills, developmentally, he is where every other 5 month old baby would be.

Today at the doctor he weighed 9 lbs 12 oz. and at last check he was 20.5" long!!! Wow, has he come a long way! Thank you to everyone for their prayers and support for our family. We love you all.

The Lyons Family

Greg, Ann, and Cameron