Well, the blogging has gotten a little slow for me. Probably because taking two vicodin an hour before bedtime literally turns me into a zombie that drools all over herself. Not the best condition to be trying to remember all sorts of medical information and whatnot. But I have returned! I'm going to *try* to cut down on the pain meds tonight...see if I can hack it without screaming and crying like a baby. Jason is having snuggle time and story time with our little munchkin so I figured its a good time to update everyone :)
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| this hat = too big for HIM |
Rowan has been doing extremely well, and we are expecting him to be weaned off oxygen completely within the week. He is almost done receiving TPN, and will soon be only on lipids and fortified breast milk. and he will pack on the pounds and be a cute little chubster! And hopefully in a a few weeks we will be able to bottle feed him, instead of a tube up his nose. Babies born before 35 weeks lack the suck,swallow,breathe reflex that is required to drink milk from a bottle. But we will get there! and then he will just have his PICC line and thats it! (aside form his monitors).
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| he likes to blow bubbles...allll day... |
Sunday we were told by one of the pediatric fellows that the cranial ultrasounds they had been doing on Rowan were showing tiny cysts around the ventricles in his brain. They werent entirely sure what this meant, and wanted to get an MRI to get a better look at things. With a preemie, an MRI is concerning because its very hard for them to maintain their own body temperature, so initially, the doctors wanted to put it off as long as possible (since it needed to be done because of the Spina Bifida anyway). They decided that he was stable enough and put in the order. We were told Monday or Tuesday it would probably get done.
I, being the worrier that I am, spent that evening kind of upset, because Im worried about what may or may not be wrong with my little guy. Jason, optimist that he is, told me to shut up because everything was fine. Hes a pain like that. We woke up the next morning and arrived just in time for rounds, and we were told that they were going to be able to do the MRI around 3 that afternoon. So we spent a few hours with Rowan, and broke for lunch, and figured wed come back after the MRI was finished.
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| zzzzzzzzzzzzz |
We got back to the NICU right as he was coming back after his MRI. He did awesome during the procedure, and only got a little cool. But thats easy enough to fix! So we held him again for a few more hours, sang some songs, told some stories, and then we had to get back to the house for sleep. I was still on pins and needles waiting for the results of the MRI. We had heard a few things from the nurse practitioner, but I wasnt going to listen to anything until we could speak to the Neurosurgeon.
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| finally opening his eyes a little! |
I tried to wake up early so we could be there for rounds, but, alas, the Vicodin won out and I slept until after 830 again. Thankfully, when we arrived, the neurosurgeon had not been by yet, even though theyd already finished rounds. She came by, and measured his head circumference. It is a bit larger, but not really concerning. Hes a growing boy now, and his head feels virtually the same. Eventually, I am sure he will need a shunt, but we want him to be a bit older/bigger before that happens. The neurosurgeon talked to us about the MRI results. She said that while these cysts are there, they are not IN the ventricles and therefore are not restricting blood flow to any part of the brain. Also, his chiari malformation (a common issue with the brain caused by Spina Bifida), is not anything that she will need to go in and surgically fix, because it is not severe. She wants to do another MRI in a few months, and ocntinue to do cranial ultrasounds to monitor the fluid in his brain twice a week. She sounded pretty pleased by what she saw, so hopefully that is a good sign :)
Oh, and he is also Bili light FREE! which means no more crazy goggles! YAY! now he will start to open his eyes more. once he starts sleeping less that is. But sleep is the best thing for him right now. It will help him to grow.
Our little guy is such a trooper Im sure that he will surpass any expectations set for him <3
Well, the blogging has gotten a little slow for me. Probably because taking two vicodin an hour before bedtime literally turns me into a zombie that drools all over herself. Not the best condition to be trying to remember all sorts of medical information and whatnot. But I have returned! I'm going to *try* to cut down on the pain meds tonight...see if I can hack it without screaming and crying like a baby. Jason is having snuggle time and story time with our little munchkin so I figured its a good time to update everyone :)
I, being the worrier that I am, spent that evening kind of upset, because Im worried about what may or may not be wrong with my little guy. Jason, optimist that he is, told me to shut up because everything was fine. Hes a pain like that. We woke up the next morning and arrived just in time for rounds, and we were told that they were going to be able to do the MRI around 3 that afternoon. So we spent a few hours with Rowan, and broke for lunch, and figured wed come back after the MRI was finished.
I tried to wake up early so we could be there for rounds, but, alas, the Vicodin won out and I slept until after 830 again. Thankfully, when we arrived, the neurosurgeon had not been by yet, even though theyd already finished rounds. She came by, and measured his head circumference. It is a bit larger, but not really concerning. Hes a growing boy now, and his head feels virtually the same. Eventually, I am sure he will need a shunt, but we want him to be a bit older/bigger before that happens. The neurosurgeon talked to us about the MRI results. She said that while these cysts are there, they are not IN the ventricles and therefore are not restricting blood flow to any part of the brain. Also, his chiari malformation (a common issue with the brain caused by Spina Bifida), is not anything that she will need to go in and surgically fix, because it is not severe. She wants to do another MRI in a few months, and ocntinue to do cranial ultrasounds to monitor the fluid in his brain twice a week. She sounded pretty pleased by what she saw, so hopefully that is a good sign :)
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