It's still probably pertussis

I wanted to give everybody an update on Felix. I didn't want to do it sooner in case he fell victim to the Buffalo Pharmer curse, but it really looks like he's going to be OK at this point. We've been out of the hospital for six days, and each day in which hospitalization is not necessary improves his chances. He's still sick, but now it looks like a baby normally would when sick, instead of the constant, heart-breaking coughing. We never got the pertussis culture back, so we don't know for sure if he has that.

Xander got the same thing Felix had, but RSV is a total monster in infants so in Xander it didn't really seem to slow him down. He slept a little more, coughed a lot, and had a runny nose. At this point, I'm thankful that not only did we stay out of the hospital, I didn't have to miss any work and only skipped one day of classes. Things could have been so much worse.

The outpouring of support from friends and family was incredible. Thank you to everyone who included us in your thoughts, prayers, pagan sacrifices, or whatever. It obviously made a difference; Felix stayed out of the hospital simply by the grace of God.

Unless one of the boys takes a turn for the worse, I should resume regular posts next week. Thanks for stopping by.

It's probably pertussis

Yesterday I mentioned Felix was sick. Today at the doctor's office they told us it's probably pertussis and RSV. The RSV part doesn't worry me too much; that's a common infection. I'm sure Xander had it at some point. Pertussis is a serious deal. At this point, we have an appointment every day for the rest of the week so they can monitor him, and they told us if he starts wheezing or has trouble breathing we need to go to the hospital. Honestly, I'm terrified of that.

There may be no greater feeling of helplessness than having a seriously ill child. Granted, we aren't talking about serious illness in the same sense as my friends whose baby was born with seizures, or the unluckiest percentage of the population who have to take a child for chemotherapy, but this is not just a common cold. At this point, we have to be prepared to hospitalize him to receive oxygen treatments. That's not something I want to think about, let alone do. A baby on oxygen is heartbreaking image. The thought of seeing my baby on oxygen is a nightmare.

Right now, Felix is still at home. I'm skipping class tomorrow to be with Xander while Jaime takes him to his daily appointment. Hopefully, his body fights off the infection and he recovers without complication, but there are a lot of scenarios that don't turn out that well. I'm scared.

I'm back

I was going to stop posting, but then a friend told me he had been checking for new posts and hadn't seen them. So a quick update:

I passed everything in the fall semester, even though I didn't go to class for two weeks after Felix was born. My grades weren't super, but I finished strong and now the spring semester is winding down. I'm totally exhausted most of the time, and I'm going to be very happy if I can pull a C in each of my classes. This semester, I participated in two electives, which was ill-advised. It's going to make next spring easier, because that's the time that electives are scheduled into the curriculum. The third year spring is dominated by the Comprehensive Patient Care course, which is a 9-credit-hour capstone course that combines everything we've learned throughout the curriculum. It's entirely different from everything up to that point, and many students struggle mightily with it. Having those electives out of the way will let me focus on that.

Both boys are healthy and adorable. Felix eats well, although we did have to put him on Prevacid to help with some GERD. It's been my experience that second-time parenting is about a hundred times easier. There are a lot fewer surprises. I also love learning more and more about his personality. It's amazing, but with the same parents our two boys are already obviously different from each other. Xander seems to be really kinetic. He likes to dance to music of any kind. Felix, on the other hand, likes to sing along. Jaime will sing to him, and he'll make little baby singing sounds back - in key! He's also amazingly even cuter than Xander was at that age.

That's a lot of update in just a few words. I'll be back within the week with some more content, but I wanted to get something out there while I had the chance. Thanks for stopping by.

I made this

Well, my wife did most of the work, but I helped.

This is my new son, Felix Christopher. He was born at 3:22 a.m. one week ago today. I think he's perfect. He doesn't cry or fuss, he burps himself, and he loves to eat. Xander had terrible GERD, so a milk hound is pretty refreshing. I hope he keeps that up.

My favorite thing about him is how alert he is. If you hold him, he will just stare at you. He gets this profound look on his face like he's contemplating the deeper mysteries of your soul. And his coordination is incredible. On his first day of life, he grabbed my hand and pulled it into his mouth. That's not something your average just-born baby does.

I've been blessed to be able to take two weeks off of work to be home with mom and baby. It's been incredible. Also, with the semester winding down, I skipped pretty much all of my classes last week and the remaining three for this week. Now it's juts five exams and I'm done. I think I can pull this off. Then four weeks to work and rest and be with my baby. I'm excited for that. I need some time off to recharge and gear up for the spring semester. I don't think it could be any more grueling than the fall was. From my conversations with upperclassmen, I get the impression the fall of the second and third years are the worst two semesters, so hopefully that holds true.

I don't know that I wrote too much about the Interdisciplinary Ethics Course, at least this time around. That class was a source of great frustration to me. Every school on the campus participates in this class, which meets in small groups (mine was 9 in the first semester and 8 this time around), so you get some exposure to other disciplines, which I liked. You spend five weeks of your semester basically discussing ethical scenarios. For instance, you have a minor patient (under 18) who comes in for a dental exam and you find signs that she might have bulimia. When you confront her about it, she breaks down and asks you not to tell her parents. What do you do? The course teaches you to think through ethical dilemmas completely, considering all points of views and all the values at stake. The idea is to equip you to (1) work with a team of health professionals and (2) make ethical decisions that you are able to defend later.

Well, I really liked this class. What I didn't like was the timing of it. Ethics is a discipline that interests me, and discussion is probably my favorite type of classroom activity. This semester we had a great facilitator, too. He was a graduate student in philosophy from CU-Boulder, and he was great at guiding our discussions. But because this P2 fall is so hectic, I didn't have time to really do the course justice. That frustrated me. I wish the course happened over the summer so I could really give it the time it deserves. Regardless, I got a superior grade. The class is pass/fail, but students who go above and beyond are recognized by the facilitator with a letter reflecting superior performance. I was really honored that he decided to award that grade to me.

I think that's all I have to say right now. I've got another "not in my pharmacy" brewing, but it's not ready for publication yet. Stay tuned.

Thanks for stopping by.