Well...

It's been a long couple of days. I seriously thought that yesterday would be the day that we would have to make some heartbreaking decisions regarding Drew. I still can't shake the feeling that we might have to fairly soon but things are on hold for now. I hope that's just the pessimist in me coming through.

I don't feel like going into great detail about what happened right now. The basic thing is that he desated very badly (as in a 60-70/30 split) for a prolonged period of time--approximately 2-2.5 hours for the pre-ductal numbers, longer for the post-ductal. His body and organs were not getting a lot of oxygen. They drained about 150 cc's off of his heart and left lung which increased his post-ductal sats to the 60s.

Messing with the vent settings, they were able to get his numbers back into the 80s and 90s and get his blood gasses looking better. Who knew we'd be cheering a carbon dioxide level of 82?! As a nurse told us, it's all relative; a week ago we'd be freaking out at that number, now we love it. He has gotten back down into the high 40s for that level as of this morning. The bad thing about having his vent settings so high (or low in the case of the oscillator--they are using it in the opposite way a conventional vent works for some things, it's very confusing) is that there is no "wiggle room." At least he's pink instead of blue/gray now.

They have stopped the viagra and started flolan, another drug to expand his arteries. It's an adult medication to treat PPHN (pulmonary hypertension) and has never been used on an infant at OU Children's, Drew is the first. Either it's working or his body has corrected the slight PPHN he was showing signs of.

His cultures have still not grown any infection. His white blood cell count has been all over the place--elevated on Tuesday, low yesterday, elevated again today. No fever but yesterday's nurse said that's not exactly indicative that he's not fighting an infection. All of the "rules" go out the window with critically ill infants.

There are signs of a colonization of pseudomonas around his vent tubes. It's a bacteria that seems to be resistant to many antibiotics however, his is not a full blown infection yet. He has been on preventative antibiotics and now antibiotics specific to the pseudomonas. Don't do what I did and read up on it online; I just managed to freak myself out on studies that are outdated and that deal with full blown infections. This bacteria does affect the respiratory system in immunosupressed people and those with chronic lung conditions (such as cystic fibrosis). Drew meets both criteria, lucky guy.

I don't know how we could get through this without all of the help we've received from the grandparents. All four have been a godsend; helping out for extended periods of time and coming on short notice. We lasted Sunday night through yesterday morning without help. We were able to stay at the hospital all afternoon because of the arrival of a grandmother to stay with Elizabeth.

All of his machines and his numbers as he was recovering yesterday morning:





Comparison of his color from yesterday morning to yesterday afternoon. It's difficult to see just how blue he was since I don't use the flash on the camera.







I held Drew up and turned him over last night while the nurse held his tubes. The pictures are fuzzy and I look horrible (I have an excuse) but here they are:





And this morning:



At 5 weeks and 1 day (today), Drew weighs 14 lbs. 1 oz., some of it fluid but he's by far the largest baby in the NICU. His roommate weighs less than 2 lbs.