07.15.08
Posted in Logan at 1:35 am by lance
During Logan’s 8:00pm assessment on Monday night, Jilayne, his nurse, noticed that his chest was swollen and red. After closer examination, it was determined that his broviac catheter had infiltrated. They immediately stopped pushing fluids through the line. Luckily, Kassie (she was charge nurse tonight, that’s why she didn’t have Logan) and Jackie were able to get a PICC line into his leg, so they could resume his medicine / fluids.
The doctor on duty wasn’t sure if the broviac was just leaking or if it was broken, so she didn’t want to pull it out and risk leaving a portion of the catheter stuck in Logan. They’re going to wait until the morning to consult with a surgeon before proceeding with the removal of the broviac.
We’re thinking that this may be why Logan had his setback on Monday morning… or at least played a part in his setback.
Poor guy… can’t seem to catch a break with his lines… hopefully, this PICC line will last him a while. We’re all crossing our fingers!!!
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07.14.08
Posted in Logan at 11:55 pm by lance
As we’ve mentioned before, Logan seems to be out growing his ET (breathing) tube. Because of this, the doctors have been upping his vent settings to compensate… his blood gas tests have been showing higher levels of CO2.
At about 5:45am this morning, the doctors had increased Logan’s vent settings so high that they made the decision to move him back to the oscillator vent. His settings are pretty high – but nowhere close to how high they were on Sunday before they took him off the oscillator – but over the course of the day, they have been able to wean them down a bit.
The good news is that technically he made it through the weekend without a major setback (although it happened during the Sunday night shift)… we’ve noticed that his trend is to have a fit of some kind or another during the weekend. The other good thing is that this setback was nowhere near as bad as his previous ones. 
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07.13.08
Posted in Logan at 11:54 pm by lance
Slowly, but surely we are seeing more signs of Logan getting bigger…
Logan’s weight is now up to approximately 2lb. 5oz. – we’re not exactly sure how accurate this is because he’s retaining some fluid from his days on the Pavulon, but the nurses think that it’s a fairly accurate weight. This means that he’s now about a pound heavier!
The other day, we noticed that Logan sounded like he’s wheezing. The nurses said that his ET (breathing) tube is leaking… basically, he’s growing and now there’s some space around his tube that’s letting some of the vent air escape. Unfortunately, he’s still too small for the next size up in ET tubes, so they’re having to compensate by increasing his vent settings.
Logan is also getting longer and just seems to getting bigger overall…
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07.11.08
Posted in Logan at 12:55 am by lance
The other week, Kim bought Logan a cool new pillow in the shape of a hand… it’s called The Zaky and it was designed by the mother of a premature baby who wished that she could cut off her hand and leave it with her baby to comfort him while she wasn’t there. The pillow is weighted and allows you to redistribute the material throughout the pillow. You’re supposed to sleep with it before you put it with the baby, so that your scent gets on the pillow.
Logan usually likes it when we put our hands on him, but as I’m sure you’re all aware he does NOT like noise and hates having the doors to his hidey-hole open. He loves his Zaky because he gets a hand on him without having his doors open.
Here’s some pictures of Logan and his new hand…
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07.10.08
Posted in Logan at 11:14 pm by lance
One of the first things Dr. Neal did on Wednesday morning was take Logan off of the Pavulon – the dreaded paralyzing medicine. They said that it would take a while for the medicine to get out of his system and Dr. Neal really wanted to see what Logan would be like when he wasn’t paralyzed… Remember that since his last big episode on Sunday, Logan has had no input on the situation because of the Pavulon. They estimated that the Pavulon would wear off around 11 or 12 and they would have the rest of the day to monitor him.
At about 6:45am Kassie stopped the Pavulon and got ready to start her report to Janice, the day shift nurse. Kassie checked in on Logan after a few minutes and noticed that his eyes were open – this happens once in a while when they are paralyzed – so she closed them. After a few more minutes, she peeked in on him again and his eyes were open again, so she put the wetting ointment (this keeps his eyes from drying out, since he can’t blink) in his eyes and closed them again. She stood back and watched for a bit and his eyes popped open again. She then realized that when she had positioned him last, she had put his hands by his chest and they were now by his face. Kassie called Janice over and told her to look at Logan… He’s waking up already and it’s only been about 25 minutes since she turned off the Pavulon!!!
Just goes to show you how much Logan does NOT like that Pavulon and how determined he is to forge his own path through life and not be like the others who would normally take hours to wake up.
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07.09.08
Posted in Logan at 12:16 am by lance
Now that Logan’s a little more stable… here’s a more upbeat entry…
As I’m sure you’re all aware, Logan is an active little one. During his latest episode, the doctors didn’t want any of Logan’s input on the things they were doing to him, so they gave him Pavulon to paralyze him. Here’s one of the side-effects of having no control over your body…
Talk about drool on your pillow… yuck!!! Logan’s drool is very, very, very sticky… You should have heard it when Kassie suctioned it up…
Well, I guess she felt bad for him because tonight she made him a little drool catcher…
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07.08.08
Posted in Logan at 6:48 am by lance
There were a lot of people that worked on Logan this weekend during his latest episode and we are thankful to all of them, but we are especially grateful to Terry (Logan’s nurse) and Kimo (one of the respiratory therapists).
Terry worked on Logan ALL DAY… from the start of her 12-hour shift until the very end, she was doing something with him… she didn’t get to eat lunch until about 3pm and even then she must have inhaled her food because she was only gone for 15-20 minutes… Terry was also an advocate for Logan with the doctors… She made sure that he got what he needed and that his med doses stayed at a level that kept him happy… (the doctors wanted to start weaning his meds)
Kimo was one of the respiratory therapists that was working on Logan when the doctors finally took him off of the osciallator vent. Before they took him off the vent, Logan’s oxygen saturation level was in the 20s (sometimes even lower than that) and we really thought we were going to lose him. When they took Logan off the vent, Kimo started to hand bag him. They had tried to hand bag him earlier without much success, but within a few minutes Kimo was able to get his stats up to a semi-decent level (around the 60-70s).. Kimo was also able to figure out what vent and vent settings would best approximate what he was doing manually. They did a lot of other things that probably contributed to Logan’s recovery, but Kim and I both feel that Kimo is the reason that Logan is still here today.
Once again, the staff at Kapiolani have shown why they are the best at what they do. Words cannot express how grateful we are… We can only say “Thank You!“
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07.07.08
Posted in Logan at 11:30 pm by kimi
What a scary weekend we had! It all started out so nicely with the 4th of July holiday on Friday . . . Lance & I enjoyed spending time with Logan, just holding hands (see our post below). By late Saturday night, however, things started going downhill. When we left Logan for the night on Saturday, he seemed fine. Sally was his nurse that night . . . she’s worked for many years in the NSCU but has never taken care of Logan before. Poor Sally . . . her first time caring for Logan & he decides to have the biggest fit of his little life!
Throughout the night on Saturday, Logan’s oxygen requirements kept increasing. Soon, he was on 100% oxygen support (something he hasn’t needed in a looong time). His carbon dioxide level in his blood was also increasing. The doctors made the decision to switch him back to the Jet ventilator in the hopes that the Jet would be able to help Logan blow off some of the carbon dioxide. Once on the Jet, Logan just kept getting worse.
On Sunday morning, Dr. Neal (the neonatologist in charge of Logan’s team) decided to put Logan back onto the oscillator. As we were on our way into the hospital, Dr. Neal called us & told us that he wanted to meet with us as soon as we got there . . . never a good thing! When we arrived at Logan’s isolette, we were shocked to see his oxygen saturation level in the 30s (he should be in the 90s). Another upsetting thing was his vent settings . . . we had never seen them so high.
Dr. Neal met with us & explained Logan’s situation as best as he could. Unfortunately, he didn’t have any answers as to why Logan was doing so poorly . . . all he could tell us was that they were doing everything they could to save him. Things were looking pretty grim at that point, since nothing they had tried so far had much success. Dr. Neal asked us to try to be positive while at Logan’s bedside so that he would feel our strength . . . that was one of the hardest things we’ve ever had to do, given how frightened & worried we both were. We spent several minutes in the conference room, crying & holding onto each other. Neither of us could bear the thought of losing our precious little boy.
We spent the rest of the day at Logan’s bedside, willing him to have enough strength to pull through this crisis. Luckily, we weren’t alone . . . our parents, Jen, Hugh, Dana, Megan, Sandy, & Mika were all there with us. Lance & I stayed with Logan the whole time, watching helplessly as the doctors & nurses did everything they could to keep our baby alive. We talked to Logan a lot & kept telling him how strong & brave he was.
By late Sunday afternoon, Dr. Ash (who had taken over for Dr. Neal for the night) made the decision to switch Logan from the oscillator to a conventional ventilator. Thankfully, Logan seemed to like his new vent & started to show some improvement. After a loong day of using everything in their arsenal to save Logan, all of their hard work finally paid off. Logan’s oxygen saturation level was finally back in the 90s, his carbon dioxide level was decreasing, & he was resting comfortably under the influence of Pavulon (the dreaded paralyzing drug that he hates).
Although we didn’t want to leave Logan, the emotionally draining day had left us exhausted & in desperate need of some rest. Thanks to Dara & Erik (who graciously offered their apartment to us whenever we needed it), we were able to get about 4 hours of sleep, while only being 5 minutes away from the hospital. When we left Logan at midnight, he was relatively stable, but his vent settings were still quite high, he was still getting 100% oxygen, and he was receiving nitric oxide (to help relax the blood vessels in his lungs). Although leaving Logan that night was extremely difficult, we were relieved to know that Aunty Kassie was there to take care of our little one.
After our much needed nap, we were back at Logan’s bedside by 5:30 this morning. While we were resting, the doctors had started to wean Logan’s vent settings & nitric oxide. We stayed with him until shift change & rounds at 7 a.m. Since he was still pretty stable, we decided to run home & gather some things (just in case he decided to have another fit). We also packed up the dogs & dropped them off in Kaneohe . . . they’ve been soo neglected lately, so they were thrilled to be back at Grandma & Grandpa’s house! :o)
We are happy to report that Logan remained stable throughout the day!
We did receive one bit of good/bad news . . . one of Logan’s blood cultures showed that he does have an infection. It’s good news because we at least have a reason for his fit yesterday & the doctors now have something specific to treat . . . it’s bad news because it’s an infection (something that his itty bitty body really doesn’t need right now). We’re all crossing our fingers that the antibiotics he’s getting will help him to get rid of the infection quickly.
Sunday was definitely the most difficult day for us since Logan was born. We’re exhausted, both emotionally & physically. That’s it for now . . . we’re pooped & we’re off to bed.
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07.05.08
Posted in Logan at 11:15 pm by kimi
Logan will be 5 weeks old tomorrow! It’s hard to believe that Logan has been with us for 5 weeks already. Sometimes it feels like “just yesterday” that I was on bed rest . . . other times, it feels like his sudden delivery was ages ago! Logan is truly our miracle baby . . . we enjoy every minute we spend with him!
We took this picture of Logan several days ago . . . as I was looking back at photos from his 1st week, I couldn’t believe how much he’s changed & grown! We wanted to share his growth with you . . .
A few hours old                      4 1/2 weeks old
For those of you who haven’t seen Logan in a while, please come & visit him again . . . you’ll be amazed by how much he’s changed!
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07.04.08
Posted in Logan at 11:00 pm by kimi
Logan was quite happy today . . . since it was the 4th of July, Lance had the day off. This meant that Logan got to spend the day with both mommy AND daddy! When we arrived at the NSCU, Logan’s oxygen saturation level was bouncing up & down. I opened up the doors to his isolette & put my hand on his back to try to calm him down . . . it worked for a little while, but he was soon squirming around again. Logan was sticking one hand up in the air so I held it in my hand . . . Lance reached in & held onto Logan’s other hand. As soon as Logan felt our hands holding his, his oxygen sat level bounced way up into the 90’s (a good thing!). If you look closely in the picture, in addition to holding Logan’s hand, Lance was also using his middle finger to hold Logan’s pacifier in place! The three of us stayed like this for a while . . . Logan was one happy little boy!
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