Hello everyone! Welcome to Jack's blog. Steve and I have been blessed with an overwhelming amount of support since Jack has decided to come into the world a tad bit early. So many people have called, e-mailed, text or stopped by the house and we just can't keep up. We spend most of each day with Jack at Cincinnati Children's and go home in the evenings to be with Miss Madeline. This certainly was not expected at all....but here we are and we must move forward so that Jack and his every need is taken care of, as well as making sure that Madeline is not lacking the love and attention that she deserves. Through these past 6 days saying that we are exhausted would be an understatement, but God has given us the strength to get through each day to do what we need to do. For that, we are grateful.
Jack was born on October 10, 2011, at 34.5 weeks gestation. He was born at Christ Hospital and immediately after he was born he displayed signs of distress. They cared for him in the Special Care Nursery at Christ Hospital. This nursery is considered a level 2 nursery. After 24 hours of being at Christ in the nursery, the doctors became concerned with his needs. His first diagnosis is RDS, Respiratory Distress Syndrome. This simply means that Jack has very premature lungs. It was decided that because he had a collapsed lung and air in his chest cavity outside his left lung, a chest tube needed to be inserted. This warranted a move for him from Christ Hospital to Cincinnati Children's NICU. I am not going to go through what Jack has all been through, but rather I will provide you with what we currently have in place for Jack's medical needs and go forth from there.
As of this morning, Jack has a NG tube (feeding tube), a chest tube (to allow the air outside of his lung to be vacuumed out), a PICC line, and he is intubated and on a ventilator (to support his breathing because of his immature lungs). Alot has happened for us to get to where we are today and we are so pleased with Jack's strength and how he is progressing. Certainly every day has not been peaches and cream. I will be throwing out numbers and terms that we have become so familiar with it and I will try to make sure that you understand what we are talking about. This is a situation where you must have a QUICK learning curve when you are thrown into a situation like this. It's been mentally, physically and emotionally draining, but we are willing to do whatever it takes to make sure our little guy makes progress and that each step is a step closer to being healthy and coming home.
Each day the team of Dr.'s and other medical professionals that are on Jack's team do something called rounds. I will begin with what our rounds for Jack was like this morning.
Based on his day yesterday, they are going to continue to lessen the support of the intubator in hopes of weaning him off of the ventilator so he can breathe on his own. This makes us very nervous because we fear that he will not breathe on his own, but we have to keep the faith and trust the Dr.'s in their care of Jack and they know what is best for him. This is one of the MANY things that we are not in control of. They also said that they wanted to increase his feeds today because he tolerated the food yesterday (it was his first day of breastmilk) so they wanted to increase it today. That was doubled today. Based on what we have observed, he seems to be tolerating more calories. It has also increased his wet and dirty diapers, so that is good news for us...we know that those systems are functioning. They have also decreased the amount of oxygen he is receiving through his ventilator. Again, all in hopes of getting him off the ventilator. The good news about his chest tube is that the vacuum that it is hooked up to is showing minimal suction from his lung, which is critical. The chest tube is in place to ensure that his air on the outside of his left lung (there is a technical term but I won't go into that today). His air pocket on the right side has also decreased and the small pocket of air there they believe will be absorbed into his body in the next couple of days. His xray this morning showed that his air pocket on his right has improved and his left cavity is looking great. Throughout this process Jack has had some damage on his lungs because of the trauma and the prematurity of his lungs. It is a condition called P.I.E., an abbreviation for Pulmonary Interstitial Emphysema. It's not the same emphysema that people who smoke would get. This simply means that in the short term he may have to be on oxygen longer or come home on oxygen. It may make him more dependent on oxygen. This is a condition that can improve, so we remain hopeful. As for his PICC, which is in place because of his need for food and antibiotics, may have to be replaced, which we found out right before we left the hospital today. It's because it is going up his neck rather than down his central vein. We will know more tomorrow on how they plan to work this issue out.
Yesterday was the first day that we were actually able to hold Jack. This was a HUGE step. They allowed us to hold him, but it took 3 people to move him to me. The respiratory therapist and 2 nurses moved him yesterday. The fear of moving them is that any of his tubes could become dislodged or disconnected. So, the move is a very careful one at that.
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