Not totally grasping what it meant, I made a joke to the front desk. "Signs on that door are kind of scary." I thought it was hilarious until the charge nurse, who is also one of the boys' primary nurses when she's not charging, spun around in her chair at the sound of my voice.
"Has the nurse practitioner or anybody called you," she asked.
Immediately my heart began pounding. "No?"
"Nobody has called you?"
My heart stopped and dropped into my stomach. "No."
She lifted from her chair and came around the desk. "Okay. Well, we need to talk," she said and began pulling me towards a parent conference room.
I had never been in the conference room. I didn't know they had one. We've gotten some pretty bad updates at the bedside before. Good gosh, what was I about to learn that was so bad that I had to be put into a little room to learn it?
My legs turned to lead. It was a conscious effort to put one foot in front of the other. Immediately all of the worst scenarios played out in my head. My throat went dry and my heart constricted.
The fear of the worst must have registered on my face. She pat me on the back. "Oh, it's okay! Everyone's okay! We got results back on Wyatt's pneumonia and it requires him to be in isolation. He's had a good day. The isolation stuff is scary looking and we need to go over some things. I'll let the nurse practitioner know you're here and she'll update you."
I felt myself take a breath. My weighted legs nearly turned to jello. Had nobody been watching, I would have collapsed to my knees and cried with relief. I was pretty close despite the audience I would have had.
They had taken cultures of what was in Wyatt's lungs and they finally had an answer to what his pneumonia is. It wasn't the best news but it wasn't the worst news.
Wyatt has Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE). Kind of a nasty bug that's resistant to antibiotics. There are two types. One is worse than the other. Wyatt has the better one. Finally a little bit of luck, right?
This is a bacteria that exists on our skin, in our gut, and a normal healthy person can keep it in check. Since Wyatt is premature, he doesn't have the defenses to do so.
But since it's resistant to some fairly strong antibiotics, he's been placed in isolation to prevent it from spreading to other babies, including Cameron. With the cultures, they are able to test what antibiotics will work on it and he is currently on that antibiotic.
The nurses are impressed that he doesn't seem more sick. He's one tough little boy.
I didn't get any peepers today from him, but he's been stable and the little guy needs his rest.
Now, whenever we interact with him or touch any of his things, we have to wear gloves, a gown and a mask. If we're just looking, we don't need those things. This may be for a few weeks or this may be for the entire duration of his stay.
So they're in separate rooms for now, which makes me sad. They loved being with each other in the womb and I wonder if they miss each other. The staff is working with infection disease control to see how isolated Wyatt needs to be, if his brother can be in the same room with him. They were both moved out of Room 1 today which is the most critical care room. Now they're in the low birth weight center. It's more about the ability to isolate him than suggesting they're doing much better. However, it's a bit quieter there and the lights can come down a bit which will help lessen their stress.
As for Cameron, he's doing well. He's been nice and stable and even looked for me today. They are both eating as much as they can with a PICC line in.
That's really it for now so here are some pictures because pictures are always fun:
Wyatt
(the IV on his head infiltrated which is what the bruise is. That will go away on its own)
Cameron
(some tummy time with the Cammy-cam)
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