Day 32: Paxton Loves Daddy

The nurse informed Scott and Susanne that Paxton was irritable all morning. This was partly because she had been trying to collect blood from him multiple times and had been unsuccessful. The nurse attempted a couple more times when Scott and Susanne arrived, but once again had no luck. The nurse almost let Susanne try to get a blood sample because as a veterinarian she does this a lot. Unfortunately, this did not happen because the nurse was too worried she would get in trouble. What a bummer. The reason the blood sample was so important was because the doctors wanted to reassess his platelet count, which are cells in the bloodstream that help with clotting. Paxton's platelets had previously been a little low and the doctors wanted to monitor them closely because of the microscopic evidence of blood in the stool. The new plan was to have the evening nurse reattempt to get a blood sample. Poor little pin cushion.
The fecal occult blood test was still showing up positive today. The doctors decided to run a Clostridium difficile toxin test to see if the evidence of blood in the stool was caused by all of the antibiotics he had previously been on. This happens when people are placed on antibiotics and the amount of good bacteria in their gastrointestinal tract is decreased significantly allowing the bad bacteria, such as Clostridium difficile, to overpopulate. This can be passed from person to person so Paxton was placed on isolation until the results came back. Luckily, it was a quick test. The results came back later that afternoon which were negative. Yay!
Paxton was placed on Pepcid in the meantime to help reduce the acid in his stomach. This should hopefully help to alleviate the problem.
Susanne taught Scott how to swaddle Paxton today. He did really well for it being his first time. Paxton loved to be swaddled as well as being held really close.
Also, Scott and Susanne ran through Paxton's exercises each time he needed his diaper changed which, by the way, was quite often. They spent the day switching off who was holding Paxton while watching movies and listening to music. Later, they left for dinner to have some quality time together, but they quickly came back because they missed their little bug. What a great day.