#11 Routine of some sort

Posts with a # at the beginning are part of our story. They are from when Stacey was little. All the other posts are current day or have a year or age noted. If you're new here and want to start at the beginning, just find #1 and at the end is a link to the next part so you can read in order.

Enjoy! Thanks for being here! :)

     We were in a routine now. They would routinely draw blood at 7, 12, 4 and 10. Her veins are filling with scar tissue and the sticks are getting harder to do. Sometimes it takes a few tries. She fusses a little and although it makes me sad, it's encouraging. She's fighting. We just don't know what. The lab results keep changing, but not giving answers.

      Then, her blood gas dropped. This tells how her blood is oxygenated. It should be around 20, her's dropped suddenly to 11. A retest confirmed. They have to do an arterial stick - meaning they do a blood draw from an artery. This requires local numbing first since it's way more painful than a regular draw. She actually cried. She sounded hoarse and week, but it was a cry, not just a whimper.

      Based on the arterial stick, they decide to order another chest xray. They'd done a series the day we arrived, and it was clear but she was quickly requiring more oxygen and her respiration's (speed of breaths) were climbing.

      After another night of dozing between consults, changing diapers, soothing and feeding her (half nursing, half pumped breast-milk from a bottle), we woke to what some would say is horrible news for a 3 month old, but for us, it was an answer....

Continue story here:
http://highfivesforstacey.blogspot.com/2013/08/12-raging-whaaat.html