Hello 2011!

When is it not a little nutty around the Mikels house? We are finally in the process of our big move to the new rental home! YAY!! We are hoping the big furniture can be moved at the latest one week from today. We are all excited to get a fresh start. We go to Bankruptcy Court in about two weeks. We are planning our first and only "We went Bankrupt and are lovin' it " party!! Hopefully, this will happen sometime in February after we get settled!

Noelle has had some issues lately health wise. Her oxygen/nebulizer needs have increased and some nights we put her back on high flow to make her more comfortable. Steroids have been a great friend to her off and on forever...and they continue to be. She works so hard everyday just to breathe and has been sleeping and napping much more frequently. She has been much more fatigued that sometimes she has a hard time just climbing onto the couch...which she has been doing with ease since the summer. She really likes to snuggle on the couch instead of getting down to play. She has pretty much stopped eating by mouth completely. My least favorite is that she is back to gagging/retching/coughing.

Thanks to one of Noelle's nurses in the NICU...I was able to get in touch with a mom that had a kid much worse than Noelle. That child was transfered to a hospital in Columbus, Ohio because they have a special unit for kids with severe chronic lung disease. That child is now home and actually doing much better than Noelle. The statistics for Nationwide Children's Hospital are amazing. The readmission rates for this hospital are about 3-4%...where as the typical readmission rate from NICU's across the nation ranges from 33-40%. So its clear they know what they are doing. The pulmonologist and I both decided that it was time to try something new....

So we have been consulting with a great doctor in Columbus. She is making a few changes like switching her diuretic and increasing calories. The biggest change is that she wants to try Bipap at night. She thinks that if Noelle could just get some relief...things would be a lot better. Bipap seems to work really well up there. Noelle also has to go back and see the cardiologist and get an Echo (thats today). We are meeting with the sleep doctor to get the bipap hooked up on Thursday. My great hope is that Noelle will realize that it is helping and won't fight the bipap...yeah...its a great hope. For those of you that don't know what bipap is...it is very similar to CPAP (which people use for sleep apnea). It provides positive pressure so that she doesn't have to work so hard.

We are really hoping that these changes will provide Noelle with some breathing relief. If not, we will probably be going up to Children's in Ohio for a little while to let them take a look at her. I'm really hoping that things can be fixed at home!

Thats about it! Just a few updates about Noelle. I'll update again when we are settled in our new home! I can't wait (believe it or not) to be in a smaller space!! It'll be easier to decorate and CLEAN! :) YAY!

Hope everyone had a fantastic start to 2011!

xoxo,

Stacie :)