Really, Seriously? Really?!!!

First the good news; Malachi has been without morphine since yesterday and tylenol is managing his pain well.

The bump in the road news; he has a tube back in his stomach to drain it because he has been vomiting again. Projectile, vomiting that is, nice green gunk that says 'hey nothing is moving around here and I am coming out somehow!' The surgeon seems confident (after further x-rays) that it is simply a matter of his bowels waking up, which is slowed because of the 6 hours of being under and the morphine, also because of playing catch-up on his pain management. All things that Dr Aiken was certain to teach and train the fellows and residents on during rounds this morning. Malachi paved the way and at least his suffering can be lessons learned for other little ones to come. More on paving the way when I finally get around to letting you in on his break though surgery.

The bad news; I got a call about an hour or so ago that went like this, "Mrs. Lockhart, Malachi is doing fine. We have a confirmed case of measles. It's a staff member who works in the NICU. In order to protect all the babies and do the best thing for them we need to administer an intramuscular shot with antibodies. This will not necessarily prevent him from getting measles, but it might. It will make it so he has a less severe case if he does get it. Again, Malachi is fine, we will continue to take the best care of him, this is something we need to do to protect him from this disease."

Are you serious? Am I on some sick and twisted hidden camera show? We are now praying that Malachi does not get the measles and that his bowels will wake up and start moving things downward. Sometimes I am not sure I can handle one more thing. And then the phone rings with that one more thing. Maybe I should start saying 'bring it on'! I don't think I am that brave yet.

UGH! That's about all I have to say at the moment.

Well one more thing; my children are amazing, it's been so good to be home with them today. Daddy is with Malachi and I am a mom to my other 4 for the first time since January 31st. It's been a wild ride, and it's been nice to just hunker down at home today and play house :)