Great doctor appointments!

We just got back from Charlie's appointment with his GI doctor, Dr. Book. She said that the surgery is definitly working and that we should be thrilled with the results!! Well, we are thrilled and feeling so very blessed to be among the top 30%! His labs are all looking wonderful except the white blood cell count is slightly high. So, she started him on an oral antibiotic, Septra. Other good news is that we can now start tapering off on some of his meds, including the steroids. And on the 29th of this month we are officially off all the IV antibiotics! Which means goodbye to his PICC line. Nick and I will be so happy to get some more sleep, but Charlie may not be so happy as he has grown quite accustomed and attached to the line:)
Also, he saw his family doctor last Thursday for a well child checkup. Everything looks good. He now weighs 12 lbs which is around the 5th percentile.
All in all, a great week! Thanks again for all the prayers!

A blog for the entire family!!

Everyone keeps telling me that although they love the updates on Charlie, they are also wondering about how the other 2 munchkins are doing. So, here it is!!!!

www.nqcampbellfamily.blogspot.com

Great night!

Surprisingly enough after Sunday's awful night, last night was wonderful! The twins both slept until 5 am. I feel like a new person:)
Nick and I both think that Charlie got some some of stomach virus from Kayla. She wasn't feeling too good yesterday at all. And it wasn't like Charlie to vomit as much as he had 2 nights ago. Poor kids...It is just so sad when they get sick.
Other than that, "our little yellow man" is doing really good. Not yellow at all anymore! He has 2 doctor appointments coming up soon so I will update then...

The Night of Vomiting Hell

Last night began as most of our nights do. Marquesa and I ran around getting all the kids ready for bed after we had celebrated my dad's birthday at his house. We got home a little later than usual, but got Kayla ready for bed and then got the kids tucked in.

Marquesa, being the incredible person she is, sent me to bed around 8:30 pm so I could catch up on a little sleep. This would have been incredible if the night had been a normal one. However, when Quesa finished the midnight IV drugs for Charlie, she came to bed thinking everything would go as usual. Exactly 15 minutes later was when the night really began.

Vomitting followed by screaming quicly awoke us out of our sleep. Marquesa ran into the other room to find Charlie soaked in vomit. He cried unceasingly for the next 20 minutes while Marquesa changed him and tried to comfort him.



This would have been bad enough, but 1:30am rolled around, and the whole process was repeated. This happened again at 2:30 am, 3:30 am, 4:30am, 5:30 am, and then Charlie finally slept until 7:15 am.

I consider myself very fortunate for having an incredible wife as a mother to my children. I am also happy that I got about 5 hours of interspersed sleep, which is probably about double what Marquesa got.

Another month of antibiotics:(

Well, we found out that the doctor wants to keep him on antibiotics for at least another month...pretty much meaning no sleep for Nick or I. But it's worth it if it prevents him getting an infection.

His labs were a bit better this week in terms of liver enzymes, but his white blood cell count was on the high end of normal, which my indicate an infection or it may mean nothing at all. He'll be getting labs done weekly for a while longer.

Please continue to keep him in your prayers.

Lots of smiles!

Charlie is continuing to get better and better. Here is a picture of his scar from the Kasai surgery. It is healing so nicely. Also, we have been very fortunate to have not had a bout of cholangitis (infection). Many kids that go through this surgery get cholangitis at least once. It can be pretty scary if that happens because it can cause septic shock or can cause the surgery to not work anymore, thus needing a transplant. Luckily, Charlie is already about 6 weeks post surgery, so the chance of developing cholangitis is continually decreasing.

Charlie's nest lab draws are this Thursday again. And there has also been talk of this being the last week of antibiotics and his picc line! I should find out if that is the case today or tomorrow.

Keeps getting better...

This weeks labs were great! Charlie's liver enzymes are about the same, his ggt went down as well as his bilirubin. Total bili count is 0.6! Overall, he is doing awesome!

Updates

Hi! Sorry it's been so long since we've posted. Charlie is doing quite well. His bilirubin count is down to 1. And his liver enzymes are going down also. There is one lab value that we were concerned about because it was so high. It was his ggt. Normally it should be around 100-200. It was over 2300 last week and over 2600 this week. His doctor says she has seen it this high before and because the bili count is so good, it is probably due to his medications. We will retest this week, but she isn't too concerned:)
Overall, he is doing really good. He's been eating and growing so much that he has almost caught up to his sister! I saw them the other day talking and cooing to each other. Charlie gets so happy every time he sees Hailey. It is so cute. Kayla has finally learned how to be soft enough with the twins and loves to give them kisses. Although, it is exhausting, we are loving life right now and are so grateful for the blessings we have. Thank you for all the prayers...