NICU Day 21 (December 28th)

  ***Written by Chris McDowell, Jill's Mother***

Your prayers were felt greatly on Tuesday and Wednesday.  Noelle has stayed stable for the most part.  She developed a sizable gas bubble in her intestines and the abdomen was distended.  The staff immediately began assessing her for NEC (necrotizing enterocoloitis) and prepared her for transfer to Baptist, if it becomes necessary .  If the intestines perforate and the gas goes into the abdomen it is immediate emergency surgery(which would have to be done at Baptist).  They started her on antibiotics and inserted a tube to draw the gas out.  Her xrays looked better Wednesday evening at 10 PM, while her abdomen was still discolored.
The jet ventilator has improved her blood gasses which, Lord willing, will help the PDA (opening in her heart) to reduce, but that won't be known for a few days.  She is more agitated when on the jet ventilator because it "wiggles" her whole body so she is on a very low dose of sedative.
Her chest xray looked a bit "hazy" Wednesday morning which suggested fluid in the lungs from the PDA.  She was started on diuretics which hopefully will help her body drain the fluid for now.
Noelle did reach the 500 gram mark on Wednesday morning which is a praise as far as her being the size the surgeons would want to see to perform the heart surgery to close the PDA if needed, but we are hoping and praying that is not needed at least for now.  She is so small and it would have to be the last resort.  She received her second dose of ibuprofen around 6 PM Wednesday.
They did take her off the hydrocortisone for her blood pressure.  They had gradually weaned her down hoping her own adrenal glands would kick in.  So far her blood pressure was staying stable.
Your love and prayers truly helped us navigate the ups and downs of Tuesday and Wednesday.  We can't thank you enough for all of your care and support at this time.  God bless you all.

NICU Day 12 (December 19th)

Noelle had a stable day overall for which we are very grateful. She currently weighs 15.2 oz. but we take into consideration that this includes her breathing tube and the heplock in her foot...either way, she has not dropped below her birth weight so that is a praise. She is tolerating her feeds very well, so they were able to increase them yet again...she is getting .4 milliliters per hour (we are slowly but surely moving toward the 3 milliliters per hour they want her to be receiving for her size). They had weaned her off the hydrocortisone today for her blood pressure, but her blood pressure started dropping again, so they are going to put her back onto it and wean her off over a longer period of time. Her adrenal glands need to kick in and figure out that they need to take over for her body. Hopefully the longer weaning period will help that. Her white blood count was slightly lower today. The white bands were still the same count, but overall it was a little lower, and the bands had not increased so we were thankful for that. They are still watching her closely for infection as she is off antibiotics now, but she has now been off of them for 4 days!! We know this could dip again, but we're grateful that for now she is not on them. She is still having a bit of trouble with one of her lungs--one small section seems to have trouble staying inflated, but her x-ray today did look a little better so hopefully that will continue to improve. As far as updates, we are trying to get a page going through "Caring Bridge" and hopefully will have that up soon for people to stay updated and continue to pray. We cannot thank God enough for your love, support and prayers.

NICU Day 2 ( December 9th)

 ***Written by Chris McDowell, Jill's Mother***

Today was a "good" day. Jill is doing well and no problems with bleeding. They keep checking her blood and she has to still have a hep lock in for safety backup. Someone asked how far along Noelle is. She is 29 weeks, but last measurements a little over a week ago she was only measuring 22-23 weeks in size. She is the smallest baby this ...hospital has had. One baby born just a little bigger than Noelle just went home this week.
Her oxygen levels were doing so well last night they dropped her on down to 21% oxygen and Noelle's O2 levels began to drop so they bumped her back up to 75%. She responded well and they weaned her back down today and she is presently on 24% which the doctors are very pleased with.
They are still running detailed blood tests on her DNA, but so far the US showed mild fluid in the kidneys which they believe could even be resolved now because she has good output. The preliminary on the ultrasound on the brain is that everything looks good. The doctor just want to get one more specialist's opinion on it, but the doctor said they don't believe there is anything that they can see. The nurse told Tom tonight that they got the results back from the ultrasound on her heart and everything appears normal. They should get a full report in the morning when the doctors do grand rounds.
They have been taking blood to check oxygen levels and the genetics doctor took to run DNA testing so they will probably give her a tiny transfusion tonight, she was 1/10 of a point below the level they want a certain blood level at.
Her blood pressure has been running a bit low and they have been giving her a drug called Dopamine in small increments. This evening it was finally up to a level that they are happy with.
They are pumping all kinds of nutrients into her along with some "fatty emulsions". I guess last night she wasn't tolerating the fatty emulsions well so they have backed off for now and will reintroduce later. They hope to insert a feeding tube in the next few days and give her breast milk.
She appears to be very responsive to Jill and Tom's voices and continues to be called feisty by the doctors and nurses. They can't believe she is so active and responsive.
The medical team has been great, but they continue to lovingly share with Jill and Tom that because Noelle is so tiny she is still "very sick" and anything and everything can be a factor in causing her risk. It is minute by minute and they greatly appreciate everyone's prayers, support, love and care. They are thankful for every minute God has allowed them to have with Noelle.
Good night to all.