Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Lets Never Do This Again
Early Saturday the 23rd, Mandi & Russ recieved a call from the NICU. Blakelee had several A& Bs and she was fussy around midnight. Not acting like herself at all. They ran labs and performed a spinal tap, they knew something was up probably an infection. Around 8 am when Mandi and Russ got to the NICU they had intubated and put Blakelee on the oscillating ventilator, which she hadn't been on since she was first born, and at that time only for a couple of hours. Her body was in extreme distress. They were having a hard time controlling her heart rate and blood pressure. They immediately put in an arterial line in her hand so they could monitor her blood pressure heart rate accurately. She still had her pic line in her neck so they had already began a wide range of antibiotics. Her soft spot on her head was some swollen, that and other signs pointed to spinal meningitis! Spinal meningitis is a condition that causes swelling and inflamation in the lining of the brain and spinal cord. Hers they later determined was caused by the same strep b infection she had before. Today, April 26th she is still a very sick little girl, but this afternoon she is showing some improvement. Her 02 settings are much lower, she is showing signs of wanting to breath on her own. They have weaned her off her blood pressure medicine and she is tolerating that well. She is moving some even with the sedation they have been giving her for comfort and also to keep her calm and so she will never remember any of this. The doctors told us this morning, she isn't any worse so that was the good news for the day. They have done ultrasounds on all of her organs to see if there is a spot the infection could have seated itself and laid dormant after the first time. She will be on antibiotic treatment for atleast 21 days to make sure they clear her of the infection. They will repeat a spinal tap when she is feeling better to check on that infection. They attempted 2 times yesterday but her little body was dehydrated on the inside and swollen extremely on the outside as you will see if we can get a picture to post. Again we know she will get better from this and look forward to more good days ahead!!!
The Calm Before the Storm GOOD FRIDAY
Mandi & Russell had such a good day Friday the 22nd! They had been able to visit Blakelee and she was in an open crib! That has never happened before and that brought all kinds of exciting and fun things. Among those were dressing her in pajamas for the first time, holding her as long as they wanted, being able to basically take care of her by themselves! The only thing medically was really having a nasal canulla with oxygen flowing in and her feeding tube. They enjoyed that all day with only one time about 4:00 pm of her having a small A & B. It was the greatest day so far!!
Monday, April 11, 2011
30 Day Roller Coaster
Wow, where to begin? Moved from room 3 to room 1. The lower the number the higher level of care is needed. On Tues. March 15 the doctors decided with everything in place ( pic line, ventilator, arterial line which was monitoring blood pressure) that Blakelee was well enough and needed to have the PDA surgery! The surgical team came over from Primary Children's and in a 45 min procedure went through a small incision(small for us) in her back between 2 ribs and clamped the little vessel and with a few stitches close it up. She did marvelous!! The week that followed she recovered and was able to start eating again, taken off the ventilator and put on cpap. Moved into room 2 where 1 nurse was to 2 babies, where room 1 you have 1 nurse for 1 baby. March 24, Grandpa Hogan and I decided we should go check on her before we left on our cruise on Mar 25, Mandi at this time had gotten sick and had to go home and wasn't able to see the babe for about 2 weeks or so ;( Blakelee was doing so well, she was up on her feedings, very few a&b's and the sweetheart of a nurse knew how hard it was for this grandma to go away for 10 days so SHE LET ME HOLD HER!!! Now remember I had only gotten to touch her with my finger like maybe 2 times before this so this was AWESOME!!! We felt so much better leaving and she did great while we were gone. Came back Sat Apr. 2, ran up to see her and Mandi and Russel were also able to go see her that night. She had been moved into room 6, just had a nasal cannula for extra oxygen, no ivs at all! She was still doing wonderful she had grown a lot since we were gone and looked like a perfect miniature chubby baby!!! No a&bs for like 2 weeks straight!!!! Everything was perfect! Thursday Apr 7, Mandi gets a call Blakelee in the night had had some a&bs, her tummy was swollen and she had a lot of left over food in her tummy when they would go to feed her again. Not Good! They were leaning toward an infection in her tummy, started antibiotics, drawing blood, put her back on the cpap to help with breathing. By Fri Apr 8, moved into room 4, she had a grade 4 a&b, (back on the ventilator) ,they had determined from xrays she had the necrotizing enterocolitis we had heard about when she was little, in her tummy, read in the Feb posts and it will explain this. By the afternoon we also knew she had developed strep B infection in her blood, and also an infection developing in the crud in her lungs. She was one sick baby, and scaring all of us to death!! Monday Apr 11, brings much better news! She is feeling much better! Blood work shows the strep has cleared and if stays clear she'll go off those antibiotics in a few days. Her lungs and breathing have improved and they will start trying to wean her off the ventilator AGAIN. Her tummy xray this morning was good enough if she keeps improving by Friday they should be able to start feeding her again. She had been up to 33 ml every 3 hours before getting sick so she will start missing that in a hurry and be sad again : ( They have also been able to almost eliminate the morphine and they have had to give her to control the pain and also the sedative to control her vitals. Her vitals would plummet when they would even touch her let alone change her diaper or draw blood. So thankful she is doing better, and as I sat with her and listened to the nurses talk and sing to the other babies I know she is in good hands and some very special people work in that NICU!!
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