Busy Week

This week is a busy one. We have a number of doctors' appointments for Nathan.

Today we started with his pediatrician's office for his monthly vaccine. We got to meet Philipe, the child who is also needing the vaccine. We shared a vial with him (we both needed 1 and 1/2 vials of the vaccine). This expensive vaccine helps prevent against respiratory infections, which could really be serious for Nathan (Philipe was born premature so it could be serious for him too). We also found out that Nathan now weighs 11 lbs. 4 oz. . . so he is indeed growing!

They also took advantage of the fact we were there to check Nathan's oxygen level. We were very encouraged to find that his saturation level is finally above 90 without being connected to oxygen! That was very exciting as this is the first time that this has happened and brings us closer to taking him off the 24 hours a day oxygen. However, we needed to see what Nathan's cardiologist would say. So . . .

Then we rushed over to Dr. Davalos' office, Nathan's pediatric cardiologist. We spent some time talking about Nathan's progress and then he did an electrocardiogram and listened to Nathan's lungs and heart quite a bit with the stethoscope. He also did an ultrasound on Nathan's chest (which was interesting trying to keep wiggly Nathan as still as possible!).

We found out that Nathan's heart is doing really well; however, the pressure in his lungs is still a bit high (as a reference point, it should be at around 20 and is at 33), so the cardiologist is recommending that we keep him on round-the-clock oxygen for a few more weeks yet. If there is too much pressure in the lungs, it causes the heart to work too hard, which of course is not recommended.

So I guess you could say we received good and bad news today - good news that Nathan's oxygen level in his blood is up to where it needs to be, but bad news that we still need to keep him on oxgyen to help his left lung continue to develop and stabilize. The cardiologist did say that this will definitely take time and that we shouldn't be discouraged - it just takes some patience.

In fact, he mentioned that Nathan's case has been presented three times at the hospital for educational purposes because his situation has been about the best it could possibly be considering what he was born with and that he is responding so well to the surgery and treatment he has had so far.

In the meantime, we still need to be careful of taking him out and having a lot of visitors here at the house. The idea is to minimize the risk of infection as much as possible, especially now during the cold and flu season. Along this line, please pray for Santi as he has been feeling a cold coming on the past couple of days and he certainly doesn't want to pass it on to Nathan (or to me for that matter).

Santi also took a quick trip to my OB/GYN's office (thankfully all these offices are on the same medical compound) to get that all-important signature and seal on Nathan's birth papers . . . the signature that we need to start the process to get Nathan's birth certificate. So since we had that paper, we decided to make another attempt at the Civil Registry office. So once again, we stood in line and made our way into the small little cramped room to register Nathan's birth.

Let me just say it was quite a process. We first had to hand over the paper from the hospital along with our ids. A lady typed the pertinent information onto a form (I mean literally typed - on an old-fashioned typewriter). She then handed the form to us to make sure it was all correct. Then we had to pay her 50 cents because we didn't register Nathan's birth within the first 30 days after he was born.

Then we turned to the next lady (mind you, there was barely room to turn around in the small little room - granted we did have Nathan and his carrier seat and a diaper bag and the oxygen tank!) who was HAND-WRITING the same information again into an "official" book. Santi then had to sign the original form that was typed and also sign in the "official" book. Mind you, she hadn't hand-written the information in yet, so I guess he just had to sign, assuming that she was going to write everything in correctly.

Later on this week, Santi can go back for Nathan's computerized birth certificate (thankfully this Civil Registry is located a few blocks from HCJB). I guess it takes them all week to transfer the type-written form and then the hand-written book into the computer. Then if we need a really official, original certificate (which I'm afraid we're going to need in order to get Nathan's US passport), we'll need to take a trip to another Civil Registry located way on the south side of Quito (about an hour away) . . . and who knows what adventures we'll have then. I can hardly wait! It never ceases to amaze me how much time we can take up with paperwork like this (even after living here 11 years, I still haven't gotten used to it).

Looking ahead, we have another doctor's appointment on Wednesday afternoon with the surgeon who did Nathan's surgery. As far as we know, this is just a follow-up checkup to make sure Nathan has healed up from the surgery. And then a week from today, we have Nathan's 2 month check-up with his pediatrician. I was looking at the list today and I believe that he will be getting most of his regular vaccines then. . . . thankfully Santi comes along with me on these appointments as he's a lot braver than I am when it comes to giving Nathan shots!

Well, this has turned out to be a lot longer than normal. Hopefully you haven't fallen asleep while reading all the medical updates (oh and the birth certificate saga that continues). I'm afraid I don't even have a photo today to make things more interesting. Thanks for tuning in and for your continued prayers and encouragement - we definitely feel the love and concern from so many of you - THANK YOU! We'd really appreciate your prayers that Nathan's lung will continue to develop and grow so that we can soon take him off the oxygen . . .