and emails trying to take care of things back home, pumping every
couple of hours and feeding myself to keep up with this. The family
dropped me off at the hospital for my mama visit with Zaria and they
went and had a great time exploring the Oxbow Nature Study Park.
Meanwhile Zaria was doing really well in NICU today. So I took some
notes and thought i would share some of the particulars of her care
with you all.
Today she weighed 705 grams(1.55 pounds) meaning she has gained 10
grams during her stay but has dropped some weight which were fluids
that were building up in her the last couple days (probably due to the
heart valve med: indomethicin). She is 30 cm long today.
Her blood oxygen levels were the best we have seen in days and her
heart rate was around 156.
Last night they gave her a shot of hydrocortisone to address low
cortisol levels. Her blood pressure had gotten quite low yesterday
probably due to a few rounds of sedative/pain meds and a day of being
messed with. The cortisol level in your body deals with stress
response and the hydro. was administered to kick start the body's
responses. This did bring the blood pressure up and today's reading
on her internal monitor was around 40/24 which is very good and
stable.
For pain and agitation they go between two meds: morphine and
nembutal. She doesn't respond well to these meds, maybe because she
is so young. She hadn't had any meds since very early morning and was
resting fairly peacefully during late morning/afternoon.
Every so many hours she gets a dose of caffeine. This will help start
priming her lungs to one day be off the jet respirator. Once she is
off this type of respirator I may then get a chance to hold her (and
then i'll never want to leave!)
Today we found her with her light therapy off for the first time. The
bilirubin levels were low enough that she didn't need this but they
will be monitored at least a couple times a day. She didn't have to
wear here sunglasses so i could watch her eyes move behind the eyelids
(these are still fused) and look at her sweet dark hair.
Currently the nurses check the 'blood gases' every 12 hours. Hers
haven't changed much today which is (my approximation) a good thing.
Currently every 12 hours Zaria gets a lung xray. This is very low
level radiation. What has shown up for her is usual for a micro-
preemie; nothing great but no serious problems or changes either.
Her head is measured daily to check for hydrosephalus (or indications
of the brain bleeding). All well so far.
She has had some bleeding but no change/worsening on the most recent
brain scan. This bleeding is most likely to occur some for a
micropreemie during the first couple weeks of life. If it stabilizes
then you tend to only see it due to a major problem in the body (for
example: serious infection, need for CPR or other major health
change).
Maybe during the next few days she will begin to receive a tiny bit of
breast milk (1 ml; example that 1 tsp of milk is 5 ml so she would get
1/5 a tsp). They had some ready today but when the juices from her
gut were extracted they were a bit green(bile) showing that her gut is
not ready. They have to be extremely careful with the gut as this is
the last place the body sends blood to and things can go wrong here
fast calling for emergency surgery or other measures. The breast milk
will not give any nutrition (maybe some energetic loving) but will
prime the gut to get it started working.
So that is kinda what her day today looked like. Pretty calm compared
to others. In fact i sat with her and begin to write her birth
story today.
(papa is over visiting now, will send another update soon)
couple of hours and feeding myself to keep up with this. The family
dropped me off at the hospital for my mama visit with Zaria and they
went and had a great time exploring the Oxbow Nature Study Park.
Meanwhile Zaria was doing really well in NICU today. So I took some
notes and thought i would share some of the particulars of her care
with you all.
Today she weighed 705 grams(1.55 pounds) meaning she has gained 10
grams during her stay but has dropped some weight which were fluids
that were building up in her the last couple days (probably due to the
heart valve med: indomethicin). She is 30 cm long today.
Her blood oxygen levels were the best we have seen in days and her
heart rate was around 156.
Last night they gave her a shot of hydrocortisone to address low
cortisol levels. Her blood pressure had gotten quite low yesterday
probably due to a few rounds of sedative/pain meds and a day of being
messed with. The cortisol level in your body deals with stress
response and the hydro. was administered to kick start the body's
responses. This did bring the blood pressure up and today's reading
on her internal monitor was around 40/24 which is very good and
stable.
For pain and agitation they go between two meds: morphine and
nembutal. She doesn't respond well to these meds, maybe because she
is so young. She hadn't had any meds since very early morning and was
resting fairly peacefully during late morning/afternoon.
Every so many hours she gets a dose of caffeine. This will help start
priming her lungs to one day be off the jet respirator. Once she is
off this type of respirator I may then get a chance to hold her (and
then i'll never want to leave!)
Today we found her with her light therapy off for the first time. The
bilirubin levels were low enough that she didn't need this but they
will be monitored at least a couple times a day. She didn't have to
wear here sunglasses so i could watch her eyes move behind the eyelids
(these are still fused) and look at her sweet dark hair.
Currently the nurses check the 'blood gases' every 12 hours. Hers
haven't changed much today which is (my approximation) a good thing.
Currently every 12 hours Zaria gets a lung xray. This is very low
level radiation. What has shown up for her is usual for a micro-
preemie; nothing great but no serious problems or changes either.
Her head is measured daily to check for hydrosephalus (or indications
of the brain bleeding). All well so far.
She has had some bleeding but no change/worsening on the most recent
brain scan. This bleeding is most likely to occur some for a
micropreemie during the first couple weeks of life. If it stabilizes
then you tend to only see it due to a major problem in the body (for
example: serious infection, need for CPR or other major health
change).
Maybe during the next few days she will begin to receive a tiny bit of
breast milk (1 ml; example that 1 tsp of milk is 5 ml so she would get
1/5 a tsp). They had some ready today but when the juices from her
gut were extracted they were a bit green(bile) showing that her gut is
not ready. They have to be extremely careful with the gut as this is
the last place the body sends blood to and things can go wrong here
fast calling for emergency surgery or other measures. The breast milk
will not give any nutrition (maybe some energetic loving) but will
prime the gut to get it started working.
So that is kinda what her day today looked like. Pretty calm compared
to others. In fact i sat with her and begin to write her birth
story today.
(papa is over visiting now, will send another update soon)
No comments:
Post a Comment