Oral Meds Suck

White Blood Count - 3320 cells/microliter
Absolute Neutrophil Count - 1380 cells/microliter
Segmented neutrophils - 27.5%
Band Neutrophils - 14.2%
Lymphocytes - 16.6%
Monocytes - 38.3%
Eosinophils - 1.7%
Basophils - 1.7%
Metaphils - 0%
Myeloblast - 0%

Today was the last day of the ribavirin breathing treatments! Yay! We no longer have to put Cael in the box for 2 hours at a time, or wake him up when it finishes at 11:00 PM and starts at 5:00 AM. And we don't have to worry about him waking up in the middle of it and crying, and not be able to pick him up. We are so happy it is done!

They have also started to switch his medications from IV to oral. That isn't going very well. They only switched 2 medications so far, and Cael HATES it. We gave him the first one (which was less than 1mL) and he immediately threw it up. Then we gave the second, which he kept down. They reordered the first one, and when we gave it again, he threw it up again in less than 5 minutes. Now they are going to try giving him Ativan first to help with the nausea. He is also asleep now, so I don't really know what to expect. If he does keep it down, we won't know if it is because he got the Ativan or if it is because we gave it to him while he was sleeping.

Tomorrow, they plan to switch over more medications to oral. However, if he is throwing these up, I don't know what they will do. I also don't know what this will affect the plan for us to leave on Monday. The nurse just said if he still won't keep down this medicine after getting the Ativan, then he probably isn't ready for oral meds. If that is the case, I'm sure we won't be leaving Monday.

He also didn't want to swallow the meds. He just holds them in his mouth. Giving him his pacifier sometimes helps, but I'm not sure that will continue to work later. Anyone know any good tricks to getting their babies to take oral medicines? Mixing with formula won't work since he doesn't consistently drink that. So we don't want to take the chance that he won't drink and therefore not get his meds. In the past, I have tried putting the medicine at the way back of his mouth, but that sometimes makes him gag and throw up anyway.

I tried to give him mashed potatoes today. He took a tiny bite, then just held it in his mouth. So instead I just let him play with it. He had a great time making a big mess of it. But then he threw up......I swear it was the tiniest of bites! This does not make me feel good about trying to give him solids again. Any time I try to give him applesauce or baby food, he just holds it in his mouth and cries. And today, with the choking, I am so nervous about giving him anything other than formula or water. The occupational therapist thinks we should just skip all the stage 1 and 2 baby foods and go right to the 3. I definitely think that is a bad idea now. And we can forget the cake on his birthday! There is no way I am going to risk that. 

I don't know what will happen tomorrow with the meds, but I'm hoping it is better than tonight.