Friday, December 22, 2006

Craziness pt2

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Please Help

Hey All..

A very very special friend of mine was hit by an 18 wheeler truck this morning. She is in Harris Methodist Hospital in Ft. Worth- They say she is going to make it, but has some serious injuries.
Her name is Fonda-and I have can not tell you all how much she has done for me over the last 13 years. While Sadie was in the hospital, Fonda was constantly in touch with me asking what she and her church could pray for.
I pray that God comforts her, and heals her quick.

Rock on,

The Dangerous 5

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Wednesday, December 6, 2006

There is no place like home

They are going to release her today!
I assume they will be home between 5 and 8?

The Dangerous 5 together again!

Update on heart...

HEY!!!
Miriam just called- The cardiologist says that her murmur is just a regular-old run of the mill murmur and does not have anything to do with her being sick.
He thinks she will be out of there today or tomorrow! WOO HOO!

The regular docs were about to make rounds, so we will know more soon.

Waiting

Hey guys-
We are waiting on a consult with the cardiologist. He is going to decide if they are going to continue looking at her heart for any of the cause of this-or-if this is just simply viral pneumonia.
I am going to work @1:30 but if I get any update, I will post ASAP.

Thanks all

Monday, December 4, 2006

The EKG...

The EKG came back normal.

Bedtime tonight...




SNOW at the CHaD...

Here is a link to the place where Sadie is.

Also, Miriam said that while following the ambulance it was snowing! For my family out west, here is the definition of snow:

Snow is precipitation in the form of crystalline water ice, consisting of a multitude of snowflakes. Since it is composed of small rough particles it is a granular material. It has an open and therefore soft structure, unless packed by external pressure.
Snow is commonly formed when water vapor undergoes deposition high in the atmosphere at a temperature of less than 0°C(or 32°F), and then falls to the ground. It can also be produced by hoar frost which falls from the surface on which it is formed, or falling particles of ice fog formed when the humidity in surface air freezes at very low temperatures. Snow is less dense than rain, which means the same amount of moisture will produce a greater volume of snow than it will rain. One rule of thumb is that the water in eight units of snow is equivalent to one unit of rain. See Snow density.

UPDATE

I decided to stay here at home with the boys.

Miriam called- she is so happy they are there- She said the ped unit she is at is REALLY COOL and the doctors are already running test and giving Sadie a bunch of attention.

The doctor told her that the problem could be one of a few things-
1. a simple cold that has gone wrong- and developed into pneumonia
2. a tiny leak in her heart that is pumping blood into her lung- He said this is very fixable.
3. could be related to her heart speeding up.- She had an EKG, but no results back at this point.

I will update as soon as possible.

Go West Sadie, Go West...

This morning the docs told us that Sadie has not improved like they think she should be- so- ...
bum bum pa dummm...
They are sending her back to Darthmouth.

Not sure at this point where the boys and I will spen tonight-

Will update as soon as I can.

Reading is good for you...

Here is a link to the entire first chapter of a great book I just finished reading. Let me know what you think...

Click HERE

Tom- tell me your thoughts...

Sunday, December 3, 2006

Everybody was KungFu Fighting..na na nana na na nana na...

Hey All-

It's Sunday night and Sadie is still in the hospital. They took her IV out, and say she is doing better. Maybe able to come home soon (next day or two???).

Jack is better. We are going to send him to school tomorrow. (he was out all last week)

While waiting for more updates, I thought I would put up a video we took before we all got sick.






Rock on.

The Dangerous 5

How about a couple of pictures of Sadie...

This was taken before she was put back in the hospital- She sleeps like her momma!














Saturday, December 2, 2006

anyone up for some reading?

Anyone here checked out Blue Like Jazz by Don Miller or Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell?

Thursday, November 30, 2006

If I did get sick...Here is how I would do it...

Got Jack down to about 101 last night-
Took him in today-
He has pneumonia and two ear infections! WOO HOO!
They gave him a script for some better antibiotics- so far so good only a small fever.
I put them to bed at 9- lets see what goes on tonight-

They say Sadie has mix pneumonia (both viral and bacteria)
Her heart is a little fast, so they are watching that too.
They say she is looking better.

I just took my temp-
101.2


Anyone care to have a drink with me?

WHAT IS GOING ON???

It's 3:30 am.
Jack has a temp of 104.1
May be taking him to ER.
Am I in a reality show and not know it?

Wednesday, November 29, 2006

ANYONE THERE?

Hey all-

On Monday 11-27 we had to put Sadie back in the hospital. She has viral pneumonia in both lungs. Not much more info than that, will update when we have more info.

She is at St. Joe's Hospital in Nashua- room 212

Please leave a post and let me know if anyone is still looking at this.


rock on,

The Dangerous 5

Thursday, November 16, 2006

SLEEP

wow...


we have 3 kids...

Saturday, November 11, 2006

Oh, I forgot...

Many of you have been asking what the test results were for the chromosomal stuff (downs, turners, etc...) To be honest, the docs never got back to us, so Iguess it is not an issue-
Just wanted to let you all know what we know!

Cheers.

Thursday, November 9, 2006

The Mini-Series...

14 Videos of the trip and home...










































Wednesday, November 8, 2006

FREE SADIE! THE TIME HAS COME! HOME, HOME, HOME!!!

We are picking her up TONIGHT!!!
WOO HOO!

The docs say that we should not take her out yet, and have limited visitors SO- not sure when you all will get to see her, but she will be sleeping in her own bed tonight!

Tuesday, November 7, 2006

Tuesday Morning...


Hey-

Sadie had a bath yesterday and really liked it. She is now up to 5lbs, 4oz!!!
No episodes so far. The countdown continues...

FREE SADIE!

Monday, November 6, 2006

DAY 5... and counting!


Hey All-
Sadie is still doing well! The countdown is still on for Tuesday or Wednesday!

Sunday, November 5, 2006

LOOKIN' GOOD!!!

So far no more brady or apnia episodes- The countdown is still on!

Here is the latest video -

Saturday, November 4, 2006

THE COUNTDOWN BEGINS!

The docs are now saying that if Sadie does not have any bradycardia or aptnia episodes by Wednesday, she may get to come home!

She is eating really well (all by mouth)- she is a chow-hound!

She is up to 5lbs 3oz.

I have another really good video I am going ot be putting up soon.

Wednesday, November 1, 2006

WE HATE TUBES!!!

Hey!-

Sadie took out her nose feeding tube (twice) so the docs decided to leave it out! She is eating from a bottle now - and breast feeding twice a day (really well too!).
Also, she is up to 5lbs 1oz.

On a side note, we got our new minivan tonight. It is awesome!!!

post more video asap.

Monday, October 30, 2006

THE MAGIC LEFT HAND

Sadie discovers she has a left hand...

HARRY TALKS TO HIS LITTLE SIS

Turn up your speakers...



Sunday, October 29, 2006

Nashua NICU Video

Hey All-

Sorry for the delay on the post, but here it is.
Sadie is doing well. She is in Nashua until she learns to eat on her own w/o a tube. We were told 2 or 3 weeks- we will have to wait and see.

Anyway, here is a video-



Saturday, October 28, 2006

WHERE HAVE I BEEN?

Hey everyone-

Been very busy. Sadie is doing great! She is now in a normal baby crib in the Hospital- I have a new video that I am going to post tomorrow as well as all the good stuff going on with her.

hittin' the sack now.

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

WOW-


At 9:30 am tomorrow -Thursday(10-26) ,Sadie and Miriam are getting on an ambulance and transferring to Southern NH Medical Center in Nashua!!!
For those of you outside of NH, Nashua is only about 25 miles away from my house (and DHMC is about 2 hours away).

SO-
This is all great news.
Sadie is up to her max feeds (40cc) and she is also breast feeding really well (her mom is a PRO!!!)
They have completely taken her IV out, and she is now wearing clothes!

I am working tomorrow 1-10, so I will update asap.


Thanks to all!


The dangerous 5 (almost all together!)

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

ANOTHER STEP

HEY!

Miriam called around 4- They took out her chest tube and disconnected her IV. She said she is doing really well!

Off to bed-

CHEST TUBE? WHAT CHEST TUBE?

Hey all-

I am back home with Jack and Harry. Miriam called me this morning and said the doctors are going to remove her chest tube this afternoon! WOO HOO! Also, the are going to be taking her off some of her IV stuff. (lipids & electrolytes). She is up t0 30cc on her feeds.

I am going to be home and at work over the next few days and back up to the hospital Saturday after work to Sunday night.

The Dangerous 5

Sunday, October 22, 2006

LOOK OVER YANDER!

Looking out of the window of the NICU floor

PICTURES FOR YOU

Hey Mom!

SHHH!!!


Sleeping

Pretty girls


Don't forget to brush!

Marriage is great

no mas! no mas!

They decided to slow down on the feeds (milk). She has been throwing up a little so she will be going back down to 17cc every 3 hours.

BATHTIME AT THE APOLLO

A Message from Jack and Harry...


Friday, October 20, 2006

E.T. PHONE HOME!!!

Hey everyone-

I have not been calling anyone for the past couple of days- I have been really busy.

The Docs are not ready to clamp the chest tube at this point. That is going to be the next step in her progress.

Miriam, Jack ,Harry and I are all doing ok- a little "up in the air without a home" feeling, but all well.

Thanks again for all the support.

Cheers,


The Dangerous5

SUGAR AND SPICE AND CHEST FLUID MUCK

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Captian Happy



Harry says hi too!

GOT MILK?

Hey!

Sadie ate today for the first time! They are feeding her breast milk every three hours through a small tube in her nose. (Jack thinks this is really weird) They are still checking the output on her chest tube, and it is looking really good-not much coming out at all.

Miriam is really getting to spend some good time with her daughter and LOVING IT!

At work tomorrow till 5 then picking up the kids from Grampie and Michelle and heading back to the hospital.

On a side note...

I changed the settings so that anyone can post comments- even without logging in!

SUPERSTAR SADIE!!!

Monday, October 16, 2006

Amazing

I made it up to the Hospital tonight around 5pm. I can not wait to take some pics of her for everyone to see. She looks AMAZING! I got to hold her for about 30 min, and the entire time she starred at me and made faces. I think she likes me.

Post more asap.

Cheers

Monday Monday

Hey everyone!

I came home last night with the boys- They slept well in their own beds.
Jack got off to school this morning, and Harry and I are hanggin around the house watching cartoons! WOO HOO!

Last night Miriam told me that she got to help the nurse give Sadie a bath and change her blankets and stuff. She said it felt so great to be a mom to her!

I talked to Miriam this morning and we have more good news!
  • They took her off the CPAP machine. (the big blue tube on her nose) They say her respiratory system is doing really well
  • They had a small tube down her mouth into her belly to take out extra air that the machine was putting in- that has also come out!
  • Her chest tube output really slowed down!!! If she keeps going like she did last night, they are going to clamp off the chest tube. They don't want to take it out yet, just in case- But clamp it off will give them a good idea what will happen when they do decide to take it completly out.
  • She is peeing really well
  • Looking really healthy
  • Overall, her fluid input and output is good!
  • And finally, the nurses took off her cap, fluffed up her hair and put a pink bow on her head!!!

TWO MORE PICS!!

This is me and Mark at David's House. It has been a great help to us and an awesome place to stayThe Dangerous 5 (minus 1)

Sunday, October 15, 2006

SADIE ON VIDEO!!!

Look at me, I'm pretty!!!

The top 4 are pics of her yesterday, her birthday. she still had the tube down her throat.









Below are pics taken today (the 15th). The tube is out of her throat, and she is breathing good!



Saturday, October 14, 2006

nite nite

sorry folks...no pics tonight.

hope to have some up tomorrow...

Great news!!!-
They took Sadie off of the ventilator and she is doing well!!!! AWESOME!!!

Jack and Harry are here so not much time to play on computer...

will update soon!!!

Love,


The Dangerous 5

On the road again...

Hey All!

I have been on the road this morning trucking back home to pick up Jack & Harry. I got back around 2:30pm.

Miriam is doing really well- Just a little sore.

Sadie is also improving really well. They have weaned her off oxygen completely and turned down how much the respirator is working. - so she is breathing some on her own and some with the help of the respirator. Her heart is doing really well too!

The fluid on her right side has totally gone away with the help of a chest tube they had to put in. They turned off the suction of the tube to keep her body from thinking that it is supposed to keep pumping fluid into her chest- and so far so good! The fluid is still gone!
Also, when she was born she had a good sized amount of fluid on her left side too- They decided not to "tap" (put in a tube and drain) that side. The fluid on that side has gone down on its own!!!

She is peeing ok- and that is a great thing.

We were waiting on a preliminary test of the amnio fluid to determine a chromosomal defect like Down syndrome, Turners syndrome, etc... But the test came back inconclusive. We should receive the results of the bigger, more accurate test in a week or two.

There are no markers on Sadie that looks like there are any type of chromosomal defects- She looks beautiful.

While I was home today, I grabbed the camera cord . I am going to be posting some pics of Sadie this afternoon/tonight.

Thanks again for everything- We could not have made it through this without all the help and support- When any of you see or talk to Aaron and Jess, give then a huge hug and thank you from us. They have been sleeping at our house and taking great care of our Boys.

Thanks again to everyone!


Love,


The Dangerous5

Friday, October 13, 2006

PICS (NO SADIE YET)

Here is The Hospital we are at. For info, click HERE

I'm not a real doctor, but I play one on TV!



Havin fun!

Sadie Pics up soon!!!

SADIE!

Wow...
What a crazy 48 hours! We made it home on Thursday around 6:30. Miriam started having contractions spaced around 7-10 min. apart. They were not terribly painful, but not fun either. Around 9:30 they went to about 5 min. apart, so we called Darthmouth- they told us to drive in. (about a two hour drive). While waiting for Jess, our hero, Miriams water broke. I called back to Darthmouth and they told me to drive directly to Southern NH Medical Center ( about 30 min away) to monitor Miriam and baby to see if she is able to make the trip to Darthmouth. We got there around 11:30. After checking, the doctor decided it was too risky to send us to Darthmouth. Around 4:30am they decided that labor was coming, so it was time to deliver by C-section. Sadie was born around 6:30am weighing in at 5lbs 6.8 oz and 17 & 3/4" long.
She was not breathing, so they quickly bagged her and got her on a machine to breath for her. They were able to get her stable around 11:00am so they air-lifted her to Darthmouth. Miriam and I followed in an ambulance 4 hours later.

We are now all together here! Sadie is doing better- They are not having to supplement her oxygen anymore. She is pink, pretty, and has a lot of black frizzy hair. (Miriam says her eyes are blue).

We are extremely happy and very blessed by all the activities in the last couple of days. I want to thank everyone so much for your prayers, calls, and support.
At this point, they really don't know how long she is going to be living here at the hospital. We have heard at least 3-4 weeks.

I was hopping to post some pics of Sadie, but I forgot the camera cord! CRAP! I will get some pics up asap.

Sorry for such a long post, I have been awake since Thursday @ 6am. Gonna crash now- update more ASAP!!!


Love,

The Dangerous 5

Thursday, October 12, 2006

GOODNIGHT

Hey All-

It is 9:00pm and we are home. We have no new updates at this time, but should have the chromosome test back tomorrow.
Also, we are having a fetal distress test done tomorrow in Merrimack.

Please email me at pmccallum2004@yahoo.com with any questions.

We are going to now try to get some rest.

Thanks again to everyone!

P

BACK FROM ULTRASOUND

2:30pm

Hey we are back in the room now and still waiting for the doc to come in and update us.

THURSDAY 1:05PM

HEY-
REALLY QUICK NOTE HERE---

THEY JUST CAME IN AND TOLD US THEY WANT TO DO ANOTHER SONOGRAM. WE WILL UPDATE ASAP.


THANKS EVERYONE!!!
As of 11:10 am on Thursday-

Shoukld be hearing from docs soon. will update asap.

THANKS EVERYONE!!!


Good morning all!
I am now home with Jack & Harry while Miriam is sleeping back at the hospital. We have no new news at this point, so I thought I would post some pics of our trip.

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Update-(sort-of)
2:15

Doc came in- told us that it looks like the amount of fluid in the baby is about the same as yesterday. good news!
Hey Everyone-

I am going to be updating this blog anytime we get an update on anything.
For those of you I have not talked to, here is what has gone on:
Monday morning we had a sonogram that showed a good sized plural effusion (fluid on the lungs) and also too much amneoic fluid (outside the baby). They decided to admit us to the Birthing Pavilion (labor and delivery) for observation and to give Miriam steroids just In case they need to deliver the baby. They took a ton of blood and ran a bunch of tests.
On Monday night Miriam started having contractions. They were about 4 min. apart and were not really big, but somewhat painful. The staff thinks that this was due to so much amniotic fluid- the uterus gets irritated and thinks that the baby is further along than she really is.

The contractions slowed down and just about went away at the end of the night, and she was able to get some sleep (thank you sleeping pills!)

Tuesday (day 2) the docs came in and decided the best thing to do is called a reducing amniocentesis. They go in to the womb with a 22 gauge needle and take out some of the fluid. They also decided to go into the chest of the baby and drain out the fluid around the lung.

They did the procedure at 2 pm and it went GREAT! The procedure only took about 45 min. ( I only lasted in the O.R. for about 10 min.!!!) They took out a liter and a third of amniotic fluid! The rest of the afternoon was just them monitoring Miriam and the baby. Everything looked great.
The Doc came in around 7 and told us that the amniotic fluid has the staff "stumped" It is darker than usual, and has little floaties in it. They are running more and more test to rule out anything they can think of. They decided to take more blood from Miriam for more tests. They also wanted some of my blood too! woo hoo!
The rest of the night was pretty boring. Periodic checks from nurses, etc.

This morning they wanted to do another sonogram. They found that the amniotic fluid still looks good, but the fluid around the baby's lung has come back a little. It is not as bad as it was, but it does look a little bigger than it did right after the procedure.

We are now just in our room waiting for the docs to come in and update us to what the next move is. As soon as we hear anything, I will update this blog.

Cheers everyone.