I decided I need to try and post on here a little more than I have been. Going through this NICU adventure, I'm now craving stories of babies going through similar experiences. They are hard to find. I'm hoping Luke's story can help some family out there. People say knowledge is power, but more so than that, it's peace of mind.
Since Saturday, Luke's numbers have been fair. They're still not as good as we'd like them to be, but being stable is much better than what we were dealing with before.
He is still on the oscillating ventilator. This machine actually shakes Luke's little lungs about 100 times a minute. The lungs are gently and quickly being squeezed and actually do the breathing. Luke should not be doing any breathing on his own. The machine does all the work for him. With the shaking action, the lungs are also ever so gently expanded. Since lungs are so fragile, the gentler the better. His settings have pretty much been the same for about five days or so. The frequency is set around 10%. The amplitude is around 34-35%. Yesterday when I saw him, I was thrilled when I noticed some of the settings were slightly turned down; however, when I went in today, they were back up. Not what I wanted to see, but it could be worse.
His lungs looked a little "milky" on today's x-ray. That means there was some fluid evident. Because of this, Luke will be getting treated with caffeine (or what the nurses call Mountain Dew), and Lasik (lasix?? lasick?? who knows...). These drugs will most likely take that fluid from the lungs and Luke will pee it out. It's not the first time he's had this treatment and it has worked in the past.
He has a slight infection in his breathing tube because of the constant vibration of the oscillating ventilator. This makes secretions that have to be sucked out every several hours or so. Of course Luke is taking antibiotics for this and is on a nebulizor.
So much medicine for this little boy. He's also taking morphine to help keep him calm. There's also vitamins and iron, as well as protein being added to his formula feedings so he starts putting on some good weight. That's a lot of stuff going in him. When I saw him today, he was very fidgety and uncomfortable. I'm sure he has to have a tummy ache. Tomorrow there will be x-rays of his stomach to check things out. I sure hope he can get more comfortable. I didn't like seeing him like that.
Good news is, Luke is up to full feedings every three hours. He also had an IV in his arm removed and a pic line from his belly button. It's nice seeing him without so many "lines" coming out of him. Big goal is that ventilator. Once that's gone, we'll be able to hear him cry. Imagine, WANTING to hear a baby cry!
Luke is 19 days old today.
Kristin he's doing so well with his feeds. Just got to get those lungs working. He'll do it, just making you go grey early. You'll be able to remind him of this later on in life. Blake gets his daily caffiene shot as well, but I was told it helps with stimulating the brain.
ReplyDeleteI wasn't really sure what the caffiene did. I just assumed it was for his lungs. In anycase, it's a good thing.
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