Beauty AND Brains!

Day 34

Emma is continuing to ride the NICU roller coaster.  She did not tolerate the albuterol last night at all, and it seemed to actually make her worse.  They had to increase her oxygen and her ventilator pressure and she was de-satting quite a lot.  This continued through most of the day.  The doctors decided to start her on another course of steroids to see if they will help her lungs continue to develop.  She had gotten the first course about a week ago and they did seem to help at the time, so hopefully this course will also.  Emma got her first of three doses today.

She also got another blood transfusion this afternoon to see if that will help her.  Usually getting some additional oxygenated blood helps with the oxygen saturation, and also her hermatocrits were a little bit low.  Although, unfortunately this means she had to get 2 IVs put in today.  Emma was feeling extra feisty today so she had to get some extra tape put on them to keep her from pulling out the IVs.

After speaking with the nurses this evening, Emma seems to be doing better.  They were able to bring both her oxygen and ventilator pressure down and she is still doing well.  Hopefully this continues, but as we are all learning, every day is a new day and we never really know what to expect. 

Emma also had another head ultrasound done this morning.  Apparently her head circumference had grown a little bit faster than normal and the doctors were concerned about some extra fluid on her brain.  But we got the ultrasound results tonight and everything was normal, so I guess Emma just has an extra big brain!  I knew she was going to be a smart cookie.  :) 

She also gained back the 10 grams she lost last night and is back up to 780 grams. 

So after a difficult day, we got some better news tonight.  Stay tuned!