Life in the NICU

We got an eye-opening look at the inner working of the NICU this weekend. It was a rollercoaster ride of emotions that can’t be descried in words because words do not do them justice. Let me begin by saying I pride myself on being a pretty even keel kind of person but this weekend was enough to give me whiplash.

The rollercoaster ride started on Sunday with Fathers Day (my first Fathers Day) which was phenomenal. It started with a good Sunday church service (which we needed desperately because of our long layoff), then proceeded to my first father’s day gift (which kind of upset me because all Mary Cate does when I am at the hospital is lay there and roll over and look absolutely adorable but I guess when I am not there she is out and about going to the Mall and picking out great gifts for her Dad), and ended with dad getting to hold his little girl (it doesn’t get any better than that).

Then the night began with sobering news, Ian our neighbor in the bed next to Mary Cate had taken a turn for the worse. He had been in the NICU for 4 weeks doing pretty well and then out of the blue his lung collapsed, and he also needed surgery to put a tube in his bowel to drain fluid from an infection he had in his GI track (just to keep you up to speed, Ian is recovering and fighting hard but the odds are stacked against him). So, we went from the high of father’s day to staring the reality of how fragile life really is in a matter of hours. This was a sobering reminder of how fast things can change in the NICU.

So, now onto to the specifics about Mary Cate. Her respiratory stats have been up and down. She is back to needing more oxygen (she is at about 32% O2) and at a higher rate (50 BPM) then she was last week. Which is a step backwards for her but the doctor explained it is just part and parcel to her being premature. Her feedings were going along very good until today. She had been slowly progressing to eating more and more food all the way up to 5cc but today she had a good amount of undigested food so they discontinued feedings so her GI track could take a little break. They also discontinued feeding because they are starting her back on the medicine for her PDA that doesn’t allow her to eat. The ECHO showed that the PDA was still there but a little smaller (which could be the reason for the stat drop and the lack of food digestion) so the Doc wants to give her another round of the medicine. If the second round doesn’t work then she most likely she will have the surgery. The last update is on the head ultrasound. It got moved up to today and as I was writing this post they told us the results. Her brain ventricle’s where significantly smaller than they were last week (which means her body is getting rid of the excess fluid on her brain). They weren’t completely normal but the doc said the fact that they shrunk was great news.

We appreciate your prayers and if you have time please pray for baby Ian and his family. Thanks for all you do!!!!!!