The Charleston

Two steps forward. Two steps back. Ugh.

Bronch went as well as could be expected. They didn't find anything abnormal. No narrowing below the vocal cords other than a little swelling that was expected. She came back on the nasal canula. I LOVED being able to see those chubby cheeks. But she was really struggling to breathe. A few hours later, she got really pale, and her nurse (the WONDERFUL Amy) called the NNP. She just looked miserable, with eyes that just screamed "mommy, make it better." Just broke my heart. Blood gas to see how she was doing. It came back high, so they moved her to CPAP to help her out. Still lots of struggling, but she wasn't having a ton of brady or desat episodes and her color did improve a bit. The next day, Amy had her again. Thank God. Her CO2 levels were going back up, and she still was having lots of retraction and squeaking. Yeah, technical term "squeaking." Right now, I can't remember the actual term for the life of me. Even if I could, I'm pretty sure I couldn't spell it! So ENT came by and looked above her vocal cords this time. Not so good. Excess swelling there. Could be reflux, could be more. So they put her on prevacid to see if that will help. But in the mean time, she's back on the vent for roughly 2 weeks. And if the prevacid doesn't seem to help, we could be talking tracheostomy in a few weeks.

She did manage to double her birth weight as of Saturday. Even more - up to 1610 grams (790 at birth). So she's 3lbs 9oz now. Yay! But of course, the step back. She was spitting more again yesterday. Could be nothing, could be signs of tummy troubles again. If she spits more today, x-ray it is. If that is the case, PLEASE let it come back ok. If not, I am pretty sure I will go over the edge.