Monday, August 15, 2005

One Month Old

Tomorrow Emma will be one month old. She has had her ups and downs, but is doing well overall. A lot has happened since I last posted. We met with the cardiologist on Thursday and he told us we might have to do the surgery sooner than later on her heart. The hole in her heart is causing her to have to work harder and as a result, she burns most of the calories off that she receives. After a month, she is still not back at her birth weight. She is just about 2 pounds now. If she doesn’t show some good weight gains over the next two weeks, they will recommend the surgery now. She would be one of the smallest babies to ever get the surgery. Another factor is that the best heart surgeon for preemies is leaving CHOC in the middle of next month. If we want the best, the surgery will need to be done before he leaves. The doctor who is replacing him has not performed the surgery on babies as small as Emma.

Yesterday when we arrived at the hospital, they were putting her back on the ventilator. We came to find out later that she was gasping for air and her vitals were dropping so they wanted to be safe rather than sorry. She has a plug of mucus blocking her airway that they couldn’t suction out. After the vent was back in, they were able to suck out the mucus. They don’t expect for her to have to stay on too long this time because she was doing so well without it.

Since meeting with the cardiologist on Thursday, the nurses and doctors have increased her calories to the maximum. As a result, she has had some minor weight gains. Hopefully, this will continue. They also did another head ultrasound and her brain bleed continues to improve. It has gone from a grade 2 to a grade 1 and should fully heal. I think that brings you all up to speed.

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