Snow days are the best days

Snow snow snow!

Today, you may have noticed, there was snow. Something else happened too...

Ezekiel with his army of Star Was plushies

Ezekiel is 2 weeks old! This little kid has packed a lot of action into a short amount of time, but even with grim prognoses all over the place, he's still kickin' some tail. The last time we talked Ezekiel was still making solid lung progress and we were waiting for his dialysis catheter to heal. Well, the last few days haven't been great for our young hero. He's been requiring more lung support and has been increasingly uncomfortable and agitated. Some of this was because his pain meds switched, but the other piece is that his fluid retention was starting to have a negative impact on his lung function.

A beer belly at 14 days old... Impressive!

On top of all that fluid trapped in his body, he was retaining all kinds of waste that his kidneys are supposed to be clearing. Today, that toxin reached dangerous levels and we were forced to pull the trigger on dialysis. We were hoping to let that catheter heal for 2 weeks, but 8 days was going to have to be enough. I think this kid just likes snow. Remember how it was snowing on the day Jenny went into labor? Fun fact: it was also snowing on the day we closed on our house and the day Jenny and I got married. So, don't yell at the snow, love it because it loves you back. All it wants is to wrap you in a cold, wet hug... everyone's favorite!

Starting dialysis was a huge deal, we've been waiting for this day ever since week 20 when they told us he would need it. We were terrified the catheter would fail or leak, but that didn't happen! Ezekiel handled all the fluid exchanges like a champ! There is still danger for that type of stuff to happen, but getting through the first few fluid exchanges was very exciting. Ezekiel even seemed to be at ease through the whole process, which was in stark contrast to the highly agitated state he'd been in for the last two days. We're starting with very small amounts of fluids, so his toxin and fluid levels aren't going to go down very fast, but it's a good start. They'll start to ratchet up the numbers as Zeke tolerates it and the more fluid they use, the more effective it will be. Right now all of that fluid exchange is being done by hand by the expert nurses in the NICU. But once he's big enough, he'll be able to use this dialysis machine...

I thought this was a fax machine from the mid 90's, turns out it's a dialysis machine. I wonder how long it's been since they've updated this design...

Another exciting thing that's happened is that Ezekiel is finally getting some of Jenny's milk! Up until this point, he's been receiving all of his nutrition from IV fluids. Now he's getting the good stuff and he seems to love it. Why wouldn't he love it, though, it was made just for him!

Thanks again for reading and caring,
Caleb