S learned that March 25th is International Waffle Day so of course I had to have a waffle for breakfast to celebrate!
After breakfast, vital checks, and blood work etc were done they finally let me go down to NICU. There are no words to explain how it feels to see your baby strapped to all those monitors and machines. I was extremely grateful they exist and that they can do the job they do, but man was that hard.
I just tried to upload a picture, but blogger isn't working that well. I will only be posting pictures rarely, since this blog is not private, I don't really want his picture all over the place. You can't be to careful with the internet. We didn't bring anything when we went in the first time because there are warnings all over about how germish and gross cell phones are. That first visit was a huge blur, because most of it was them explaining all the different machines, what the numbers meant, and what he was doing well and not so well with.
Dr. Christensen also sat down with us because we got a little 'blessing in disguise' (since we are only thinking positive thoughts) They were concerned about the placement of his PICC line so they performed an x-ray to make sure it is in the right place. That is when they discovered that Max has a cyst in his right lower lung. This is when I need to stop and give Dr. Christensen the credit he deserves, because he is incredible. He has a very 'grandfatherly' manner. He has a very calming voice and his tone is almost comforting. He is beyond patient and answered every single questions we had, even when I asked him basically the same question twice. I can't remember what the medical name for it is, but we learned its very rare, its not cancerous, its a simple procedure to remove (though not right now) and it has nothing to do with him being premature nor did it cause him to be born prematurely. They will wait for him to weigh about 6 pounds or so before they remove it, unless it becomes infected. I can consider it a 'blessing in disguise' because had he been born full term, we would not have known it was there until it became infected (which will happen sooner or later no matter what) This way we can watch it carefully. Occasionally it can be detected in an ultrasound before the baby is born, but not always.
The ventilator that he is on right now puts short bursts of air into his lungs, since it is not good for his lungs to fully open and fully close. It makes his whole body shake and that is a scary thing to see, but understanding why makes it easier. Imagine him panting instead of taking deep breaths. The RRT (respiratory therapists) are telling us that he is doing very well and may take him off of it tomorrow! He is considered 'stable' and even tolerates laying on his right side, which is the side the cyst is on. He is doing better than I ever dreamed he would when my water broke.
My Dad and brother were able to visit with him (which involved us getting my brother a 'one time only pass') it was a really quick visit, but nice that he was able to see him again. He was still stable and was sleeping.
His bilirubin levels were still just barely under the point in which he has to go under the lights, which we are hoping he will be able to keep under control himself. He has been working really hard to get his eyes open, and they would have to put a mask on him to put him under the lights and my thought is that would set him back. Maybe not though, who knows.
We spent the rest of our day between my room (because the were continuing to monitor me, and then tell me I was perfectly fine and they were impressed...but wouldn't leave me alone! ;) and the NICU where we watched them take care of him while we held onto his finger or held his toes since those were the few parts of him not covered in a wire or tape.
Later that night Sarah visited us just before the evening care times and went with us to watch, she had to leave in the middle so she wasn't able to touch him, but promised she would be back. After everything was finished we went back to the room and tried to sleep. That is the one thing everyone keeps telling me to do, but how can I? Between worrying, getting my vitals checked, and pumping I'm not sure when I'm supposed to be sleeping. We will make it work and S has been the most phenomenal man these last few days and he has no doubts everything will work out for the best.
No comments:
Post a Comment