Lauren only had a few mild episodes of bradycardia last night and got some good rest. Her residual volumes are still significant, but not bad enough to stop the feedings altogether. The morning lab results were not ready when Mommy went to visit, so there is no news to report at this time.
10/15/01 11:00 PM:
Lauren's morning labs showed her red blood cells were down again, so she was transfused again this afternoon. THANK YOU!!! Her morning labs also showed that her white blood cells were down slightly from yesterday, a good change since it lessens the probability of infection. She has not had any bradycardic episodes since early morning. She continues to have residual volumes that are large at times, but they are continuing to feed her Mommy's milk. The baggie over the ileostomy stoma looks like it has a good amount of stool in it, so it seems to me that her bowels are still working, albeit slowly. They switched her from intravenous aminophylline to theophylline via the gastric tube. They both have the effect of stimulating the respiratory system and are in the same family as caffeine. Baby Lauren, when you're older Mommy and Daddy will take you out for coffee, OK?...
10/16/01 NOON:
Lauren gained some more weight since yesterday. She weighed in at 1 lb, 10 oz!!! Her feedings are still going, sometimes with sizeable residual volumes, sometimes not. Her apneic periods have not returned. The results of a follow-up head ultrasound scan showed no evidence of bleeding inside the brain. Her last chest x-ray showed her lungs are clear. The nurse told us that her stool has started changing color from greenish to yellowish, a sign that the breast milk feedings are traveling along the length of her small intestine. It is nice to finally see signs that her bowels are working. Her morning lab studies showed that her white blood count is lower. Her theophylline level, however, is also low. If she gets sleepy or tired she could start to have bradycardic episodes again.
10/16/01 11:00 PM:
They are doubling Lauren's feedings!!! She is now getting 2 cc's every three hours instead of 1 cc. Her ileostomy continues to put out small amounts of yellowish stool. Her intravenous TPN feedings continue. Tonight she weighed 1 lb, 10.2 oz (740 grams). Unfortunately, during our visit she began having apnea and bradycardia again, probably due to the low theophylline level. The neonatologist odered a bolus (single large dose) of theophylline and increased the ventilator rate setting to provide her more breaths per minute. That seemed to stabilize her and she did not have any more episodes while we were there.
10/17/01 1:00 PM:
They are increasing Lauren's feedings again!!! She is now getting 3 cc's every 3 hours, and has been having smaller residual volumes. Her abdomen looks less distended. She has not had any more apnea/bradycardia episodes. Mommy got to change Lauren's diaper again today, and this time she put it on straight and not too tightly. Mommy gets an "A" in diaper changing. Mommy also got to "feed" Baby Lauren today (she got to hold the syringe that holds the milk as it goes into the gastric tube). Mommy gets an "A" in tube feeding. Mommy and Daddy talked a lot to Lauren today, and Lauren opened her eyes and stared at Mommy and Daddy as they spoke to their little angel. She then went back to sleep and grow some more.
10/17/01 11:30 PM:
Lauren had a great day today, according to her nurse. She officially weighed in at 1 lb, 10.4oz and is continuing to tolerate her feeds well with small residual volumes. She has not had any more apnea/bradycardia episodes. Her oxygen setting on the ventilator is 23%. They removed the baggie over the ileostomy stoma tonight, since the site in her groin where the central IV line was has now healed. Instead of a baggie, they are covering the stoma with some gauze that will absorb anything that comes out. According to her nurse, it works pretty well most of the time, even for extended periods. Keep up the progress, honey....