Recently there has been lots of ongoing excitement, lots of changes and many firsts for Mason.

Mason was discharged from the hospital yesterday.  He ended up having 2 line cultures drawn from his central line to check for infection, both of which were negative!  YEAH!  His lymphocyte count came back a little high, so they are thinking that the vomiting was due to a virus. 

We are very happy to be home again.  It feels so good to sleep in our own beds and I know that Mason missed his as well.  I gave Mason a bath this morning and then we quickly found our old routine of cuddling and watching Sesame Street until Mason was ready for a nap.  Whoever said "there's no place like home" didn't know the half of it!!

Ok everyone, this is the latest.......

We have not yet received any results from Mason's line culture.  They are treating him with general antibiotics until we hear from the lab.  Luckily, they have not stopped his feeds this time; that usually makes for a very unhappy baby!  Mason only had one nap yesterday, and had been up since 1:00 in the afternoon.  Once again, Mason missed home and his own bed lastnight.  That seems to be an issue any time he is hospitalized.  The doctor had to give him Benadryl at 2 a.m because he just wouldn't sleep.  I did take him out into the hallway to walk around for a bit where he seemed much happier.  Unfortunately the battery on his I.V. pump was almost dead and needed to be plugged in, so again we were confined to our room.  Mason finally fell asleep around 3 a.m.

Mason will be admitted to University of MD Pediatric Floor this afternoon for a suspected line infection. He has been showing all of the same symptoms as last time with intermittent normal and low grade temps. Although the nurse came out last night and drew a line culture, Mason's team feels that he probably is brewing another infection and feels that it would be best to have him admitted to the hospital. I will update everyone when we can breathe.

Just a reminder that Mason's first birthday celebration and first fundraising event will be held tomorrow.  Details can be found under the "Activities and Events" tab.  The events is PUBLIC from 4-6pm, so everyone is welcome!  We hope that everyone will come out and show their support!

We celebrated Mason's first birthday on Saturday.  We have received some wonderful blessings during this past year, and had many things to celebrate!  I can't believe he is already a year old; where does the time go? 

I sit and think quietly while Mason and my husband both peacefully nap. I know that one day my little boy will ask, "What are the scars on my belly?", keeping in mind that although he will be curious about it at a very young age, he will not be mature enough to fully understand a detailed explanation until he is much older. I will likely spend a few years comparing his scars to a nursery rhyme, telling Mason that he had to be put back together just like Humpty Dumpty. That will only satisfy his curiosity for so long, and I know that one day I will be expected to produce a much more serious, matter-of-fact answer.

For the past few weeks, we have watched Mason's weekly lab results slowly begin to deteriorate.  The TPN, which he is now on 24 hours a day, causes damage to the liver.  One of the things that they can do in an attempt to decrease the damage is to "cycle" the TPN.  This means that he would only be hooked up to it for 16-20 hours per day, giving his liver a few hours to recuperate from the assault of the TPN in between cycles.  Mason was discharged from the NICU with his therapy cycled over 16 hours, which is where it remained until about June.  Unfortunately, the TPN was damaging his liver enough to effect its ability to maintain his blood sugar.  Soon our 16 hour cycle went to 18, and eventually 20 hours.  But we continued to see a decline in his liver enzymes as well as his ability to maintain his blood sugar.  Around the same time, the doctors thought it was time to test his system with an increase in his