Today was a pretty stable day for Noelle, and we are so thankful for
that after the last few days of dipping up and down on the
roller coaster. They did an echocardiogram today to check on her PDA and
hopefully will have the results of that tomorrow. They also did
another cranial ultrasound to make sure that the blood clot in her brain
is diminishing and resolving itself, so hopefully we will have those
results tomorrow as well. They took her off the jet ventilator today
and then put her back onto it again as they are trying to figure out the
best settings to help drain the fluid in her lungs that has collected
because of the PDA. It has its pros and cons both medically and
comfortably for her as she does not like the jet ventilator as well and
often tries to breathe over it (which they do not want her to do when
she is on it....it defeats its purpose). She also gets extremely
agitated on it so they finally gave her a fentanyl drip to help her calm
down, and she seems to be doing much better. She was alert for quite a
bit tonight, and it is fun to talk to her and watch her eyes follow our
voices as we speak and read to her. She definitely seems to recognize
our voices--so we try to speak to her when things are calm and not when
people are poking her--we don't want her associating us with pain and
prodding!! She also reached 510 grams today, praise the Lord!! She is
even physically starting to look a little bigger, and it's exciting to
see the small amounts of growth in her. We are so thankful for these
past 3 weeks and thank God for each and every day that He gives us with
her. She has blessed our lives so much already, and we are ever
grateful to Him for how He is using her to mold and change us and draw
us closer to Him. Thank you for being a part of that process with us!!
Showing posts with label Brain Bleed. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Brain Bleed. Show all posts
Monday, February 6, 2012
NICU Day 14 (December 21st)
Noelle had a good day overall today. They still have her on the new
ventilator and have not put her back onto the jet ventilator as of yet
so we're hoping this will stick with her and she can graduate to the CPAP machine in another 10 days or so. Her white blood count was lower
today and no news has come back regarding an infection as of yet, so
we're thankful for that. Her blood sugar has been stable, and they are
trying to adjust her different fats/nutrition that she receives to help
her start putting on weight and growing. We did find out today that she
had what they consider to be a level 2 brain bleed. They re-evaluated
her last cranial ultrasound with a neurologist and believe they saw a
small blood clot; however, this level is not usually anything that has
long term effects, and she does not seem to have any side effects
currently from it. They will continue to do ultrasounds every week or
two to monitor it just to be safe, but they believe we are past the
worst danger point for her to develop anything further with it. There
still is a concern for her to develop NEC, and this will be the most
crucial for the next month or so. Currently, she is tolerating her
feeds very well, and they bumped her to .6 today so we are thankful for
that too. Overall, a good day and another day down. She will be two
weeks old in just a few more hours!! Thanking God for each day...
NICU Day 10 (December 17th)
***Written by Chris McDowell, Jill's Mother***
Thank you all so much for your prayers. Jill and Tom were able to meet at length today with the neonatologist who was on duty. He happens to be the one present at Noelle's birth and helped take care of her and has even checked in on her this week when he was off.
First off, one correction is that Noelle has hypOthyroidism not hyper--. That was a misunderstanding on the terminology. Anyway, the medicine they started her on for that seems to be helping. Her blood sugars have been stable the last couple of days.
Her breathing is doing very well. She has done very well with her oxygen levels even as they have stepped down the work that the ventilator is doing for her. We hope to see improvement soon in the one small area of lung that wasn't as developed.
Major praise today--Jill actually got to hold Noelle outside the incubator for about 30 minutes. Noelle just snuggled up and slept.
The doctor took Jill and Tom to an area where he could show them all the images of Noelle's brain and show them the area that was of concern. The big concern is for a brain bleed. He said they aren't seeing symptoms of that. The lateral ventricle (I don't know if just one or both) slightly larger than what they usually see. He said this may just be normal for Noelle and not mean anything. They are watching for a brain bleed and for fluid build up in the brain, but he said that if this were to be going on there would be symptoms and Noelle is not exhibiting any symptoms so they will just continue to monitor closely.
Her feeding tube was bumped up to 0.3 ml/hr today. She tolerated the 0.2 well the last 24 hours. Still a ways to go. They usually like to see babies this small be taking in 3 ml/hr. I figured out that at the 0.2 level that gets her 1 tsp. in 25 hours. At 0.3 she should get 1 tsp. in about 16 hours. I pray she continues to do well so this can step up to a more substantial amount, but she is tolerating this well and it is allowing her intestines to grow and start to function properly.
She weighed 440 grams today which is about 15.5 ounces. That is good. She had so much swelling and edema from the birth that they warned Jill and Tom that she would drop weight -- most likely below her birth weight (365 grams/13 ounces). The swelling/edema/retained water is almost gone, but her weight is still up. She did drop 10 grams today because yesterday she was 450 grams, but that is not anything of concern. We hope to see this weight continue to go up.
Lastly, Jill and Tom would appreciate your prayers for recovery, rest and calmness in the midst of stress. It's beginning to catch up a bit. (That's why I'm doing the update tonight). They are trying different ways to work their schedule to see what will work best and I know they would appreciate prayers for wisdom and discernment. Thanks to you all and my God Bless!!
Thank you all so much for your prayers. Jill and Tom were able to meet at length today with the neonatologist who was on duty. He happens to be the one present at Noelle's birth and helped take care of her and has even checked in on her this week when he was off.
First off, one correction is that Noelle has hypOthyroidism not hyper--. That was a misunderstanding on the terminology. Anyway, the medicine they started her on for that seems to be helping. Her blood sugars have been stable the last couple of days.
Her breathing is doing very well. She has done very well with her oxygen levels even as they have stepped down the work that the ventilator is doing for her. We hope to see improvement soon in the one small area of lung that wasn't as developed.
Major praise today--Jill actually got to hold Noelle outside the incubator for about 30 minutes. Noelle just snuggled up and slept.
The doctor took Jill and Tom to an area where he could show them all the images of Noelle's brain and show them the area that was of concern. The big concern is for a brain bleed. He said they aren't seeing symptoms of that. The lateral ventricle (I don't know if just one or both) slightly larger than what they usually see. He said this may just be normal for Noelle and not mean anything. They are watching for a brain bleed and for fluid build up in the brain, but he said that if this were to be going on there would be symptoms and Noelle is not exhibiting any symptoms so they will just continue to monitor closely.
Her feeding tube was bumped up to 0.3 ml/hr today. She tolerated the 0.2 well the last 24 hours. Still a ways to go. They usually like to see babies this small be taking in 3 ml/hr. I figured out that at the 0.2 level that gets her 1 tsp. in 25 hours. At 0.3 she should get 1 tsp. in about 16 hours. I pray she continues to do well so this can step up to a more substantial amount, but she is tolerating this well and it is allowing her intestines to grow and start to function properly.
She weighed 440 grams today which is about 15.5 ounces. That is good. She had so much swelling and edema from the birth that they warned Jill and Tom that she would drop weight -- most likely below her birth weight (365 grams/13 ounces). The swelling/edema/retained water is almost gone, but her weight is still up. She did drop 10 grams today because yesterday she was 450 grams, but that is not anything of concern. We hope to see this weight continue to go up.
Lastly, Jill and Tom would appreciate your prayers for recovery, rest and calmness in the midst of stress. It's beginning to catch up a bit. (That's why I'm doing the update tonight). They are trying different ways to work their schedule to see what will work best and I know they would appreciate prayers for wisdom and discernment. Thanks to you all and my God Bless!!
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