Day 5: A more thorough update... Once again he had a good night... no issues whatsoever. The biggest event of his night was the ultrasound for his brain. This came back pretty much normal. The radiologist could not see anything definitive that was wrong. There might have been a small amount of bleeding but again, could not really be proved. The doctor, who read the results, was not concerned. They are canceling his initial, planned, 7 day ultrasound (Sunday night) and just doing it again 7 days from today. Frankly, that says a lot. She is not taking any action, he looks great, and she sees no reason to do another ultrasound until a week from now. To not be a pessimist, things still happen but hes been showing all great signs (platelets steady and are not dropping and he has great color). Additionally, she did say (knock on wood) that the major hemorrhaging typically happens by now. Again... knock on wood... pray pray pray pray pray. His blood sugar has been dropping a lot and so has his dose of insulin. The fact that he does not require so much insulin and the blood sugar is coming down to normal levels tells me that maybe that his liver and pancreas are probably starting to do their job. The latter is my assessment, but hey, that makes sense considering he needed the insulin because they were underdeveloped. Itll still be a game with the insulin but really Pru and I could care less if thats the only problem he has long-term. We say that to the doctors and even then they reassure us that his current insulin needs mean nothing for his future (in a good way). He is back to using the biliblanket. He is slightly jaundice and has bruising. The fact that he is back on it doesnt really mean much... very normal. We are told that its not uncommon for even full term babies to sometimes go home with them. So the fact that this 23 week dude was on it for only 2 days and then off was almost ridiculously rare. The only bad news of the day is concerning but at the same time not abnormal for this little man. They do hear a heart mumur. They believe it is a PDA (Patent Ductus Arteriosus). There is this small valve that should close (sometimes takes a couple days after typical birth) to allow the lungs to oxygenate the blood. Otherwise, if it stays open, then you have deoxygenated blood flowing through the body without getting oxygenated by the lungs first. Make sense? Ha. If not, google it. ;-) The doctor is NOT worried about this murmur. It is expected and should close on its own. She mentioned an EKG and even meds that would help to close it... To prove she is really not as concerned, and is confident it will close on its own, she sees no need to do the EKG just yet. They have lowered his tidal volume (TV) from 2.9 to 2.8 yesterday and now to 2.6. The closer this number gets to 2, the less the machine is doing the breathing for him. She was hoping this number wouldve been down sooner. But because of that PDA, she is suspecting that is the reason for the higher TV at this stage. If you re-read this paragraph, it really does make sense. Basically, PDA needs to close up, that increases the amount of oxygenated blood through his body, decreases the amount of machine support and therefore decreases the amount of stress/scaring to his lungs from the machine. His skin is coming in nicely... almost complete and the little guy even grew some eye lashes. The cutest freaking eyelashes ever.... Even with the above good and bad at the end of the day he is stable... like... literally... stable numbers all around and just relaxing.... so thats really the most important thing. At this point... exhale a little, continue to pray, and hope he continues this awesome course of outweighing the downs with so many ups. #EthanStrong
Posted on: Fri, 02 Jan 2015 19:02:03 +0000
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