Okay, I said I would never have a blog, but now I have a reason too! It is so hard trying to keep everyone informed on all the details while I am trying to rest and heal myself and go back and forth to the hospital. I have found that its actually impossible! So thank the Lord for this technology!!! I want everyone to be updated and be able to pray for the specific needs regarding the health of our little Hudson. Thank you all so much for your concern, calls, emails, and the prayers that have already been lifted up! We are so blessed! I guess I will start at the beginning because some have not heard much at all. So here it goes...
Day 1
Hudson Knapp Evans was born Wed. March 4, 2009 at 8:58am. He was born pretty quickly and I guess his lungs did not get a good squeeze to empty the fluid from them. So the nurse placed a tube down his throat and pulled some fluid out with a suringe. However, he continued to "grunt" all morning. This is not something they want him to be doing. They thought he was acting better so they allowed me to nurse him. I was able to do that twice before another nurse who was making rounds checking on the vital signs of the babies came in our room around 3:30ish. She checked his breathing rate and it was 80 breaths/min and it should be somewhere between 40-60/min. She called the pediatricians office and he wanted one of the NICU doctors to come check him out. So the Dr checked him out in the nursery and came to my room to let me know that were going to take him to the NICU, because he was not able to feed orally due to his rapid breathing and the risk of aspirating his milk. So he had to have an IV placed in his little hand so he could continue getting the vitamins and nutrients he needed. He also reveives antibiotics through his IV to prevent infection. They did xray of his lungs and it showed that he did have a good bit of fluid on them. This would have to dry out on its own and they would know it had when his breathing rate came down. I went in there that night and sat with him and he looked good. He started to open his eyes some. We had not seen them yet. He was trying hard! He had a tube going to his stomach to help "burp" any gas down there and he had his IV and a bunch of other "stickers" that read his oxygen levels and heart rate and temp. He needed to get his respitory rate down below 60 and keep it there for about 24 hours before they would try and feed him a bottle. Then he would have to take a bottle and handle it well and work his way up to 2 ounces, taking it from the bottle well and handling well afterward. This would probably take a few days and then they would let me start nursing and he would have to be nursing well and getting all he wanted, which means after nursing they would offer him a bottle and he would have to turn it down, meaning he was full. So I pumping, and the little that I get they will mix with his formula until my milk comes in they will begin giving him all breastmilk.
Day 2
His respitory rate stayed in mostly in the 60's and 70's. When I visited him that morning he no longer had the tube down his throat because he had pulled it halfway out! So they removed it. They did replace it that afternoon because he began to receive tube feedings. He started with half an ounce and handled it very well. I think he worked his way up to an ounce before the day was over. So they started to turn down the IV fluids. I was definitely the most emotional this day. I always cry after having babies. Just normal "baby blues". I don't think this was any different, I just had a better reason for all the crying I did!
Day 3
Discharge Day! Yuck! Not a fun day. Started off with packing up all my stuff, but surprisingly I only teared up once. Hunter and I went sat with him until my mom came at 10:30 for family visitation and she sat with me while Hunter went to work. This morning he was up to 1.5 ounces in his feedings and they were going to turn off his IV fluids and he would only be receiving his antibiotics through the IV now. His respitory rate had been 60 that morning but had come down to the 50's since then! So that was good news! I stayed there until 12:00 and then went home with mom so I could sleep! I rarely had time to sleep in the hospital and I needed the rest! I got a call while napping from his nurse to inform me that they had done an xray of his abdomen because it was distended and had a red ring around it. They got the xray back and the doctor said he had a lot of gas in his belly!! So they were taking him off the tube feedings and starting the IV fluids back so that his bowels could rest. They would reasses him this morning and if his xray showed no problems they would probably start bottle feedings if his breathing rate stayed down! Last night Hunter and I went back and his breathing rate had stayed down in the 40s and 50s!!! We were pumped! Hunter and I went home and got some sleep!
Day 4
This morning I got a phone call from the nurse practitioner that he had had some blood in his stool this morning. She said "this is not normal and it is not something we want to see". She the told me what the possible causes were. First it could be an intolerance (or allergy) to the protein in the cow milk that formula is made with. (They had been giving him formula and mixing what little milk I pumped with it, until my milk comes in). It also could be a bacterial or viral infection. So they sent to stool off to be tested for those and we should get those reults back on Mon or Tues. Worst case scenerio it could NEC (necrotizing enterocolitis). This would mean the "good" bacteria in his tummy had turned "bad" and invasive. I looked it up on google and will post the link for anyone who wants to understand more, there is also a link about a milk protien intolerance. She felt like it was probably going to be the protein allergy because he doesn't look or act sick. Normally they see NEC in premies and really sick babies. He had another xray of his belly done and they were waiting for results. So mom and I went to see him this morning and he looked good. He is under the jaundice light because his billy reuben was 13.4 and they like it to be below 12. Now that he's not eating it may take a little longer for the jaundice to clear up. While I was there he had another stool with blood in it. It was more abvious this time the nurse said, but once their bowels are disturbed like this she said you would probably continue to blood until it healed, no matter what the cause is. We had a good visit. He is so sweet! GOOD NEWS: His breathing rates have stayed down since yesterday morning!!!! So we've passed that hurdle, but traded one problem for another. The doctor called me after we left to inform me basically of the same things the nurse practioner had told me that morning. She told me what was going on and all the possibillities. I asked her about treatment and she said the milk protein intolerance would be treated by changing his food, which they will start with my breast mik and hopefully he could handle that. However, I would need to stay away from dairy products because the cow milk protein can be passed through my breast milk. So no more dairy for me until we iron all this out! The NEC will be treated with a longer bowel rest (probably a week) and antibiotics. She said she feels like it will be the milk protein intolerance, but the only thing that worries her is that his belly was distended yesterday and red. She said a milk allergy should not cause that. Their bellies should always be soft and not discolored, that is a sign of a sick tummy. So she said that could be an early early sign of NEC. However, she still felt like it was the protein allergy. A GI doctor is going to be up there Mon and she said he will help them look at the xrays more closely and determine how much bowel rest he needs. She said his xray yesterday showed a lot of gas, but it was not in the outer lining of his belly which is good. She said the xray today didn't show any problems but it wasn't "normal" meaning it was somewhat "abnormal". Now I'm not a doctor so i do not understand what that means. I guess now we are just waiting, for the stool sample results, the GI doctors opinion, and to see if Hudson gets better or worse over the weekend. Thankyou so much for all the prayers! I will update whenever we know anything!
No comments:
Post a Comment