EKG

Day 67

Weight: 3 pounds 3 ounces

Head Circumference: 11 inches

Length: 16 inches

Dr. Arrington was back today, and as I expected, there were changes. Samuel's oxygen has been at 100 percent the last four or five days - and the doctors have been messing with how much air has been going into his nose...the flow (Samuel is very happy at .5 liters.) Today, Dr. Arrington wanted to ween his oxygen down in order to protect Samuel's eyes. So I was thinking...."Ok....sure....we can go down a few percents each hour and see how he does." OOOOHHH no. By two this afternoon he was down from 100 to 40 percent. By nine this evening he was down to 25 percent. As you can imagine, Samuel did not appreciate this. His monitors have been beeping again. In the period of an hour, his heart rate had dropped three times and his oxygen level was swinging like it did a few weeks ago.

I understand that the more oxygen the babies get, the more likely they are to have vision problems. At the same time, I think if any damage has been done (which we are believing it hasn't), it would have been done by now. I'd just like to see him stable and growing instead of having to watch the monitors.

Thankfully, Dr. Arrington decided not to go back to using Lasix. He did increase the dosage of the other diuretics that Samuel is getting - but we can handle that. Dr. Arrington said that Samuel's chest x-ray looks hazy and that going up on the diuretics (or down on the amount of fluid they are giving him) should help it look better.

They also decided to give Samuel an EKG today. They are looking to see if the right side of his heart looks enlarged. Apparently kids with chronic lung disease sometimes have an enlarged heart because it is having to work so much harder to oxygenate the blood. If Samuel's heart is enlarged, it is likely that he will have to go home on oxygen. If it looks normal, it will establish a baseline so that they can check it again before he goes home. If it still looks good at that point, Samuel may not need oxygen any longer. So the EKG was scheduled for this afternoon....HOWEVER.....by five, the technicians still had not come by. They rescheduled for tomorrow morning at 8. Praying that this test comes back good.

Your sweet comments on this blog and on my facebook page are always read - even though I may not always have time to reply to them. Please know that they are very appreciated.... especially your prayers. :)