Saturday Night (January 7)

Jason and I went to see our little man today.  He looked good and had a pretty good day.  They had started his feedings up again last night.  He hadn't digested his food very well overnight but was doing considerably better today.  He had just a few episodes of a's and b's but not very many at all and the doctor was happy with that.  All preemies his size have some episodes.  Just as long as he is not having a lot of them the doctor isn't worried. 

He still isn't on any extra oxygen and only gets the same amount that you and I breathe but he is still wearing the cpap that gives him a little extra pressure in his lungs to make it easier for him to breathe.  This morning they gave him another echocardiogram to see if his pda had gotten bigger again after his blood transfusion yesterday.  I asked the nurse if she could hear a murmur and I think her exact quote was that he has a "whoppin' big murmur."  That is what I was afraid of.  We waited this afternoon for the doctor to come in and explain the plan to us now that the pda was back.

While we were waiting Jason got to hold Silas for an hour. This was the first time he held him because it didn't work out for him to do it last weekend after all. Silas was very comfy snuggled up next to Daddy and made a bunch of funny little sounds while he sat with Daddy. Here are some pics of that: 

So late this afternoon the doctor came in to talk to us.  The echocardiogram showed that the pda is large again.  Even though it is large, Silas is doing very well.  This is a very good thing.  However, if he starts having a lot of a and b episodes, requires more oxygen, or needs the ventilator they will probably do surgery to fix it.  The doctor decided to do one more round of medicine to try to close it.  This time he is treating it with a slightly different medicine that some babies respond to that didn't respond to earlier rounds of endocin.  Please pray very hard that this works!  If it doesn't work, there is a chance that he will need the surgery.  Right now the doctor is saying that it is a 50/50 chance that he will need the surgery.  He will do another echocardiogram on Monday to see if the medicine worked this time. 

I have been very worried that he will need the surgery but the doctor made me feel a little better about it today.  First of all, the pda is not actually in his heart.  It is in his chest, between his lungs and his heart (it's job is to keep blood away from the lungs in utero, but then it is supposed to close off at birth so that blood can go to the lungs so the baby can breathe out of utero.  Sometimes in preemies it just doesn't close like it should.)  It will not be considered open heart surgery and it requires a very small little incision.  The babies that have the surgery do well.  The downside is that the babies do not immediately do well.  It usually sets them back one week to 10 days.  He would be back on the ventilator for a while but eventually he would be doing much better.  The thought of them doing even a small surgery on my itty bitty 2 pound baby terrifies me and Jason.  The doctor is hoping that the medicine works too and that even if it doesn't that Silas can tolerate having the pda until he is a little bit bigger.  So tonight I am asking that you pray that Silas does not need the surgery and that this round of medicine does the trick.  God has heard all of our prayers so far and I am confident that He will see us through this. 

Oh, and in Carissa news:  She walked a lot better on her leg today.  She complained this morning that it hurt but the rest of the day she said it didn't.  She did limp most of the day though.