Today was a rough day for Rowan, mommy and daddy.
Rowan got some new equipment this morning. His blood/gas levels were still kind of icky last night. He is having trouble breathing off the CO2 and they kept suctioning a lot of gunk out of his lungs. They also had to give him pretty high percentages of oxygen throughout the night. Because of all of this, they switched him from the regular ventilator (they had maxed out the number of breaths per minute) to the high-frequency oscillator. This ventilator breaths 600 short and gentle breaths per minute. It is much more gentle and makes slight vibrations to help loosen up the gunk in his lungs. They've done several x-rays today (Rowan apparently likes getting his picture taken) and they have all been consistent. He still has some fluid in his lungs, but it isn't getting worse, which is a good thing. Hopefully the new vent will help get rid of that fluid. The new machine was a surprise for mommy and daddy when we got to the hospital, but we know that it is what is best for him and hope that it will only be a short lived thing.
They continued the new antibiotics today. They also repeated his CBC and crp levels. His crp looked great and went from a 3.8 to 0.9 (they want him below 0.6, so we're getting close). His white blood cell count was much lower today, but still shows that he is working to fight the infection. He went from 10% immature white blood cells to 6% and his platelets were a bit lower but still in an ok range. His red blood cell count also looked good. His blood culture from yesterday is still negative after 24 hours, so fingers crossed that it will remain negative after 48.
This afternoon, the doctors and nurse practitioner decided that they needed to check to see if Rowan's PDA artery had opened back up. They thought that that could be the reason that he was needing more oxygen today (he needed 60% or higher all day today 😞). So, they did another echo cardiogram to check his heart out. Everything came back clear from that. The doctor said that the PDA artery was just barely open and that it was definitely not causing the breathing issues nor does it need to be treated. This was good news, but still leaves us with a bit of a mystery as to what is going on with his breathing. One possible theory is that Rowan's lungs are inflamed. This is most likely because he has been on the ventilator for so long and exposed to so much straight oxygen. The doctor said that this inflammation is what contributes to asthma. This is treatable with steroids, but they don't administer those until he is 14 days old and he has to be getting negative blood cultures. So we are waiting and hoping that he gets to the point where he is requiring less oxygen and that we get some negative blood cultures so that he can possibly get the steroids next week if he needs them.
Today they also did another ultrasound of his brain to check for brain bleeds. This was just a routine test that they usually do at 10 days old but decided to do it today since he was already being bugged with all of the other tests. We haven't gotten official results back from the ultrasound, but the doctor said they looked clear.
Needless to say, with all of this going on, John and I were pretty stressed and worried today. Post pregnancy hormones and having a baby in the NICU are not a good combination. John has been amazing and remains strong for the both of us when I fall apart into a mess of tears. There is nothing worse than sitting in a chair watching your tiny baby struggle and knowing that there is nothing that you can do other than hope, pray and stay as positive as possible that things will get better.
On the bright side of today, John was able to sweet talk the nurses and lady at the reception desk into letting Aunt Saige come and visit Rowan today. She hadn't been able to visit because she isn't 16 yet, but we got her in today and Rowan really enjoyed getting to meet her. 😊
We continue to remain hopeful that Rowan will overcome the issues that are coming up. He is a fighter and has been stronger and done better than any of the doctors expected him to. Today we took a couple steps backward, but we're sure that we'll be back to taking steps in the right direction soon.
Love, hugs and appreciation to all of those who are sending positive thoughts and prayers. We know that they are helping.
We're ready to get back to having good days.
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