Where everybody knows your name...

I guess I'll just come right out with it: We're back at Children's this evening and will probably be admitted back to 10East tonight. 

You may remember our earlier bout with spots of blood in Blaise's diaper from our inpatient stay. After about 40 hours off feeds, several clean X-rays and negative cultures for most infectious agents known to man, we ended up deciding that it all could just be skin breakdown from really nasty diaper rash. 

OK, so fast forward a bit...about a week ago, we saw that the spots of blood were back. We covered Blaise's ears, cursed a bit, and tried to be really diligent about taking care of her skin and changing diapers frequently. We intermittently saw specks for a day or two, called the hospital to check in, and were told that it was probably no big deal unless it increased in amount or changed in anyway. The specks came and went, then came back again. Specks became dots, dots became streaks, and this evening we changed a diaper that had still more blood in it. We called to talk with her surgeon, and he told us we should come in. So here we are in a room in the emergency ward, waiting to be seen by an ER doctor before (probably) getting re-admitted and transferred upstairs. 

That's the unfortunate part, such as it is. When we know more, we'll be sure to post and let y'all know. Everybody we've talked to over the past week seems confident that Blaise is probably ok, since she's shown no signs of fever, abdominal discomfort or distention, or even seemed terribly fussy about any of this. She's actually been a lot of fun lately...lots of smiles and laughs, and she even pulled off her first back-to-front roll earlier today! It's comforting that she seems alright when you hang out with her, but it also makes being readmitted hard. I didn't want to have to take her back here anytime soon. Everything at home is better...the blankets are softer, the lights aren't so harsh, and her room is filled with great stuff that's all just for her. Plus, now we know we can take care of her ourselves at home...trying to manage Blaise and work keeps us busy, but we've been having a great time. 

Nonetheless, here we are. It'll probably take way too long for us to actually get upstairs, but Erin's holding a sleeping Blaise as I write this and she seems none the worse for wear. I'll probably wallow in self-pity a little bit longer and then I'll go to the ABP and get a cup of coffee like all the other dads. We know we can get her out of here, it's just a question of what has to happen in the meantime.

Onward, damn it.