Day 14… 3lbs
Today was a rough one…
Sounds like little man had received to doses of morphine overnight. Last dose was at 6:30am. He was able to stay pretty stable in the mid 180’s throughout the day after his last dose though.
Docs were concerned about his shallow breathing he had been experiencing since yesterday. I noticed it once he received the morphine, his whole body just relaxed. They did a chest X-ray and blood gas this morning to see if there were any other concerns. The X-ray showed that he wasn’t getting full expansion of his lungs and his blood gas levels were “OK” but not great, so they just bumped up the pressure of his cpap machine, and redid blood gas at his next cares time. Everything seemed to check out ok once they bumped him up.
Head ultrasound: They performed the head ultrasound this morning on his grade 3 brain bleed, and came by with results this afternoon….
It appears there is no additional bleeding which is good… however, what is there is beginning to clot and block his cerebral fluid from exiting his brain. They are doing daily head measures now to watch for dramatic changes in his head size, and will do another follow up ultrasound in a week. Normal is about 1/2cm per week. If it shows to be more than this, we will be transferred over to Children’s Hospital next door, where they will have to perform brain surgery to place a shunt and release the build up fluid. We’re hoping for best case that the clot will break up on its own and we don’t need to go the route of surgery. On a positive note, we may have pinpointed why he’s been so agitated. Please keep our little guy in your thoughts, and see that clot making its way out on its own!
To end on a more positive.. err… interesting note: I did venture out today and used public transportation to head over to the local grocery store just down the street. I don’t have a vehicle due to driving restrictions post surgery. There are some interesting characters in this part of town. The hospital is located on the grungy side of Aurora. While on the bus to the store, I had a fellow sitting next to me, staring at a heavy woman sitting across from us and giggling to himself the whole 7 minute ride. On the way back, while waiting at the bus stop, a rough looking woman who appeared to have had her experience with heavy drugs approached me asking to use my phone to call her boyfriend. I kindly denied, mentioning my phone was down to 20% and I needed to keep the lines open incase the hospital called while I was out. My other concern was she might take off with it, and I was in no condition to chase after her post C-Section. She was really sweet though, and asked about my baby in the hospital. I noticed a gentleman behind the bus stop finished his smoke, then whipped out a can of lavender Fabreez and doused himself in it. 😂 Interesting choice of cologne. No one appeared to be aggressive, just very unique individuals. However, I’m looking forward to having access to a car again soon and avoid public transportation.
I was able to sneak in a pic as they were changing out Ryker’s cpap mask. We haven’t been able to see much of his face since being transferred to the cpap machine. It was nice to see his sweet little face. His eyes look swollen, however this is normal with the cpap machine. He was able to peak open his left eye at me today though. It melts my heart, and reminds me that everything is going to be Ok.