***Written by Chris McDowell, Jill's Mother***
The roller coaster ride continues. Noelle was stable today, but the Dr.'s are carefully monitoring a couple of things. One is her glucose levels. She will have a couple of normal range levels and then it will drop. Right now they are attributing it to her size, but if it continues they will have to consider and endocrine problem. Also, today her tiny abdomen was a bit distended. An x-ray was ordered and revealed she had gas in her intestines. They stopped the feeding tube and ordered another x-ray for this evening to see if the gas is moving thru her intestines. The gas had moved tonight and they will check again in the morning. There is a serious concern for NEC--Necrotizing Enterocolitis. This is a disease to which especially preterm infants are susceptible. NEC involves inflammation and infection that destroys the bowel. It usually occurs after milk feedings begin because the infant's intestinal tract is so immature. If an infant gets this it requires emergency surgery to save them, but at this point surviving the surgery is questionable.
They were happy with the x-ray results this evening and we are praying that the x-ray in the morning will show continued movement in the intestines.
Another battle is how fragile Noelle is. Her skin is so thin and not fully developed. She bruises easily and is so very fragile.
On a good note she is responding to light and opens her eyes. It has been noted that she really responds to Jill and Tom talking to her. They continue to use a very low dose of Fentanyl to calm her just enough so she does not fight the ventilator.
Jill is home now and beginning a daily schedule of going to the hospital early in the mornings for grand rounds then going home for a while to rest in the afternoon and then she and Tom will go up in the evenings after he gets home from work. My sister is there this week helping and their church family is also helping tremendously.
Pray as they wade through all the paperwork that has to be done for such a birth and hospital care.
God Bless All Our Family and Friends
The roller coaster ride continues. Noelle was stable today, but the Dr.'s are carefully monitoring a couple of things. One is her glucose levels. She will have a couple of normal range levels and then it will drop. Right now they are attributing it to her size, but if it continues they will have to consider and endocrine problem. Also, today her tiny abdomen was a bit distended. An x-ray was ordered and revealed she had gas in her intestines. They stopped the feeding tube and ordered another x-ray for this evening to see if the gas is moving thru her intestines. The gas had moved tonight and they will check again in the morning. There is a serious concern for NEC--Necrotizing Enterocolitis. This is a disease to which especially preterm infants are susceptible. NEC involves inflammation and infection that destroys the bowel. It usually occurs after milk feedings begin because the infant's intestinal tract is so immature. If an infant gets this it requires emergency surgery to save them, but at this point surviving the surgery is questionable.
They were happy with the x-ray results this evening and we are praying that the x-ray in the morning will show continued movement in the intestines.
Another battle is how fragile Noelle is. Her skin is so thin and not fully developed. She bruises easily and is so very fragile.
On a good note she is responding to light and opens her eyes. It has been noted that she really responds to Jill and Tom talking to her. They continue to use a very low dose of Fentanyl to calm her just enough so she does not fight the ventilator.
Jill is home now and beginning a daily schedule of going to the hospital early in the mornings for grand rounds then going home for a while to rest in the afternoon and then she and Tom will go up in the evenings after he gets home from work. My sister is there this week helping and their church family is also helping tremendously.
Pray as they wade through all the paperwork that has to be done for such a birth and hospital care.
God Bless All Our Family and Friends
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