Banned Words

Upon Maggie's entry to the hospital, her vitals were surprisingly bad. She was diagnosed with HELLP syndrome, which is an acronym for Hemolysis, Elevated Liver enzymes, and Low Platelets. They gave her some drugs, and she got very much better for a couple of days. However, the doctors remained very worried about her and said that this was probably just the "Honeymoon Period." I maintained hope that they were wrong, but it turned out it was exactly right. On Friday, her vitals crashed and they had to do the emergency C-section.

Upon Woody's entry to the NICU, they warned me that preemies tend to have a Honeymoon Period too, where they seem like they're doing fine, but after a few days they get more twitchy. I was met this morning with a report that his honeymoon was over, as he has gotten more and more sensitive to disturbances, requiring a bit more oxygen every time he has to be disturbed for a test or a diaper change or anything. Naturally, that got me worried again, but it was exactly to be expected.

Nonetheless, I hate the term honeymoon period now. If I never hear anything referred to as that again it will be too soon. But all things considered, Woody is still doing "extremely well", according to the doctors. He's maintaining good blood C0₂ levels, he's kept his glucose levels stable without intervention for a couple of days now, and his PICC line (the IV line that they installed yesterday) moved itself overnight into the right position, so they aren't going to have to do that to him again for a while.



Check out those feet.