March 25, 2010

THURSDAY, MARCH 25, 2010 2:14 PM, CDT

Decisions, decisions...

Today we were presented with a recommendation by the Neonatologist and have a decision to make. Liam's lungs are "stagnant" as far as development/maturity goes and he's not making any real progress toward getting off the vent right now. In addition, they say he has some inflammation in his chest. Dr. Stevens spoke with us and stated since Liam is almost 2 weeks, they want to see more improvement so he's recommending a round of steroids (not the same ones they used for his kidneys) - this steroid (I have to remember to ask the name of it - when you're being presented with this stuff, you don't think of the questions til the doctor is gone) requires parental consent to use because it used to be used all the time in large doses and has been shown to cause developmental delays/disabilities. Dr. Stevens did say they use only a fraction of the dose that they used to so the delays are much less than they used to be but there's still potential risk with using it.

Shane and I are torn on this decision. On one hand, we want his lungs to mature and him to be healthy. On the other hand, the thought of developmental delays/disabilities (which are already a risk with his prematurity) is scary. So that's where we are.

They did put a trans-pyloric tube in Liam's intestine today (it goes in through the mouth and is placed just past the stomach in the intestine) to be fed milk. For him, they don't put it into the stomach b/c they don't want his stomach expanding and putting pressure on his lungs so that's why it's past the stomach.

THURSDAY, MARCH 25, 2010 10:52 PM, CDT

The trans-pyloric tube didn't go in properly. In fact, they tried at least 6 different times that I was present for and he had 5 x-rays to see if it was in correctly but it never went in right so they've given up on it for the night and will talk to the doctor about it in the morning. I'm a little disappointed it didn't work out and I just hope something isn't wrong! I did remember to ask the name of the steroid the doctor is recommending but the nurses had shift change so the new nurse this afternoon had no clue as to what I was talking about. I'll ask the nurse in the morning and if she doesn't know, I'll request to speak to the Neonatologist! Other than that, it was a good day. We did have the same nurse today that we had yesterday and I guess first impressions aren't always the best impressions - she was much nicer today...perhaps a bad day yesterday?

Edited to say: Way to go Shane...he requested to speak to the doctor when he stopped by to see Liam. The medication they're wanting to use is called dexamethasone and is only used for a maximum of 3 days in very small doses.