March 18, 2010

• THURSDAY, MARCH 18, 2010 10:53 PM, CDT

  Today was a rather decent day considering the last two days. I hesitate to even post that with the thought it could all fall apart at any second. The thing making today hardest is that I was discharged from the hospital. I know they'll call me if anything happens, but the fact that we're 30 minutes (at LEAST) away is difficult.
  
  Today, they got Liam weaned off of the doBUTamine - one of the blood pressure meds...but if his pressures start to drop again, he'll have to restart it. Next, they'll try to wean the DOPamine provided he continues to do well without the doBUTamine. He is retaining so much water today. This morning, there wasn't a noticeable difference from last night but between our 4:00 PM visit and the 8:00 PM visit, there was a HUGE difference. He looks like he's beefing up to become a football player. His head and even one of his eyes are really swollen, too. The nurse said the swelling in his head is between the skin/scalp and his skull, not between the skull and the brain, so it won't cause any damage there.
  
  He did have another one of the episodes like he had last night when they turned him in his crib today. He tolerated being turned on his side for the first time very well, but he is very temperamental about being switched from his head facing one direction to the other.
  
  I did finally learn the name of the issue Mr. Liam is having - Pulmonary Hypertension...yay Mommy for remembering to ask the nurse! LOL...
  
  
  

• THURSDAY, MARCH 18, 2010 9:41 AM, CDT

  The visit with Liam this morning went good. I got to change him, take his temp, and swab his mouth with nystatin (it's a precaution to prevent thrush with all the tubes in there). I have to admit it was a little scary to do this again. Last night when we were down there, they let me do all that and rub him down with Aquaphor (to prevent his skin from breaking down b/c it's still so fragile) and right after I did it and the nurse readjusted his head, his oxygen sats began plummeting and went down into the 60's - the vibrations from the vent were not strong enough. It took a couple minutes, 2 additional nurses, and the RT but they finally came back up - and his blood gases still looked good even after that.
  
  This morning, he's getting a platelet transfusion b/c his platelets were low on his morning labs. All the transfusions are very common given his age. He also had his first dose of the RSV vaccine yesterday. They said they give them to all the babies in the NICU monthly from October to April but he kinda lucked out being born in March b/c he will only have 2 but starting this fall, in October, he will again have to have them monthly - which is fine with me - I'll do whatever I need to do to protect my baby from germs!
  
  I will say, he's already developing his little personality. He doesn't like his feet messed with and, though he's heavily sedated, he still kicks his little feet when you mess with them. It makes me happy to see him move - it's hard to seem him just lay there with no movement most of the day even though I know it's for the best so he doesn't fight the vent.