Tuesday, November 4, 2008

And the roller coaster continues...

Yesterday was a rough day. The cerebrospinal fluid building up in Logan's head as a result of his bleed is increasing and causing his ventricles to enlarge. The doctors decided to perform a spinal tap to drain some of the fluid (2 cc's) but this is only a temporary respite and he will probably need many more of them in the next few weeks. Unfortunately if he continues down this path, he will need surgery to insert a VP shunt into his brain, which is, according to the doctors, their last course of action if all else fails. Of course our little fighter tolerated the procedure quite well, came out of sedation an hour or so later and spent the remainder of the day active, alert and as feisty as ever! Landon spent most of the day struggling with his breathing and was requiring as high as 70% oxygen because he was continuously de-satting, sometimes as low as the 30's. His blood gases were bad and therefore his vent settings were pushed up a bit; certainly not the direction we need him to be moving. Needless to say, last night was a dark one for me.

Today, however, brought a new day and my boys bounced back with resounding vigor. Both of them did great with their breathing, blood gases were good and their vent settings were weaned a bit. They continue to tolerate their feeds well and Logan made it to Day 10 today so he was rewarded by getting his PICC line removed! A PICC line is a centrally located intravenous catheter used to adminster IV nutrients and fluids. It is typically more stable and can remain in place for much longer than a regular IV. He will no longer receive his nutrition intravenously and will now rely solely on my breastmilk (though gavage feeds) for his growth. It's so nice to see one less IV attached to his tiny arm and one less wire leading from his body. He is up to 11 cc's every 3 hours and Landon is not too far behind at 10 cc's. He will probably have his PICC line removed as well in 2 days if he continues to tolerate his feeds as well as his big brother has.

On a sidenote, Logan apparently had enough of his trach tube today and decided to go ahead and extubate himself! He actually pulled the tube right out of his throat all on his own! He is such a little pistol, he makes me so proud!! The doctor said she was impressed with how well he did for the few minutes that his tube out and they didn't have to resuscitate him as they do with alot of babies that do this. Once again, our Logan is proving everyone wrong.

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