Thursday, August 28, 2014

Daniel's update: Thursday, August 28th



Good Morning Everyone,

Yesterday was a better day.  I’m going to be throwing out some acronyms and lingo here that may be incorrect, but I’ll do my best to keep it between the bouys.  As you all read yesterday morning,Tuesday night was one of the worst experiences a parent can have (Mary-Peyton first person and me through text messages).  I’d be lying if I told you I didn’t prepare for the worst.  Her little lungs were leaking oxygen and caused the collapsed lung… which sent everything into a tailspin.  The docs gave her a dose of surfactant (which her little lungs haven’t made yet) to coat the lungs and hopefully help them act like “big girl” lungs and kept her on the ventilator (vent from now on).

Some of you know that Whitaker has “Jelly” and “Lambie”, his two Jellycat stuffed animals.  We bought backups when we knew he was going to be attached at the hip to them, but he didn’t want the new ones.  A few weeks ago, Whitaker said that his little sister could have the “new” Lambie. Lambie is almost as big as Caroline and has been with her in her incubator since late Tuesday  and is holding watch over our little one day and night. Soon we won’t have the luxury of having a room on the same floor as Caroline, but Lambie is staying.

On Lambie’s watch, Caroline’s ventilator, was reduced in output (a good thing) from 45 respirations/min to 40 yesterday at noon.  By the time we went to see her together around 3, they had dropped her to 30 rpm and lowered the amount of oxygen they were having to add to the “machine-made breaths”.  The respiratory therapist told us he’d drop her again soon in the evening and we’d go from there.  She still wasn’t breathing much on her own, but when we rubbed her head or sang to her, you could see little purple lines on a normally green graph that told us she initiated a breath… This is the definition of a “lump in your throat” moment. Mary-Peyton was going to try and see her before bed, but two trauma twins came in and the NICU went into Sterile Lockdown and turned into an operating room… so she didn’t get to see her.  A few tear-filled prayers and texts later, we all tried to get some sleep… I’m running off of Starbucks and Red Bull and MP is running on her ironclad will alone.

I got a text this morning at 6:45 with some positive news.  Though the NICU was consumed with activity last night (and it’s contagious… the other premies hear and react to all the bells, alarms and general commotion), it looks like Caroline got some much needed rest with the ventilator breathing for her. She was taken off the ventilator and for a brief moment, they thought she might be able to duke it out without any assistance.  She could keep her oxygen levels up, just not high enough to be safe, so they put the CPAP mask back on.  Progress! They’ve dropped her oxygen levels to the same amount that you and I are breathing and the CPAP is about on the lowest level it has.  Ironically, the Caroline’s doctor told me that she’d soon get a dose of caffeine to help stimulate more breathing while I was carrying in our first course of Starbucks for the morning.  She has a looong way to go, but she’s strong like her mommy and stubborn like her daddy.

Mary-Peyton will come home tomorrow and Whitaker (and I) are excited!  MP is very sore, but recovering well.  Thanks to everyone for your prayers and positive thoughts.  Keep praying for little Caroline.  She’s a fighter, but it’s a long bout.

Best,


Daniel

1 comment:

  1. Prayers for all. Long road ahead but, so glad to hear about the progress today. Sweet Caroline:) Amy Farmer

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