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Thursday, August 02, 2007
Dylan update this morning:
The Doctor called us from the NICU in Dallas and gave us quite a bit of new information.
Dylan's blood tests show no infections, and he'll be having an ECG this late this afternoon.
He does have a tiny pneumothorax - so tiny that the Dr sees no need for intervention at this time. If it does get worse, he will have a tube put in his side to redirect the air out of his body instead of having it go into his body cavity.
He also has something called Infant Respiratory Distress Syndrome (previously known as Hyaline Membrane Disease), which is unusual in a baby who has been carried to term (Dylan was term +4 days). Dylan is currently on 35% oxygen, and has gone up on his CPAP level from a 5 at the time of transport to an 8 last night after some dusky episodes. At the moment, with his supplemental oxygen needs at 35%, there is no need for any sort of intervention - they will take the "watch and wait" approach, but if that level were to reach into the high 40s or into the 50s they would step up intervention. Sometimes with IRDS, the CPAP treatments are not enough, and at that point, intervention would require intubation and possibly artificial surfactant. Since he is a "big" baby, having been born at term, he has a harder time breathing, with these issues, than a smaller baby would, although the Dr did tell us that 1/2 of babies are able to recover on CPAP alone without any additional measures having to be taken.
He did warn us that Dylan will get worse before he gets better, and predicted his problems will peak at about 1.5 - 3 days postpartum. The average NICU stay for a baby in Dylan's condition is 7-10 days, half of which is spent trying to get better, and the other half of which is spent learning to eat.
So, I'm heading out shortly to Dallas to be with him, while Ami recovers. We're trying to decide whether to stay in Dallas thereafter or commute there daily. I guess we will play it by ear. I will post more soon (hopefully some pictures from the NICU).
(Thanks to Ami for dictating this phone call to the blog - hang in there, sweetie!)
.: posted by
Dave
8:17 AM
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