11.26.10

We wanted to start this blog so people could follow Harper's progression through her stay in the NICU at Overland Park Regional.

So, here goes....

Okay, this first blog will be longer because I will try and update you as to where we are so far -
She has been doing pretty well for as little as she is, but we are told to expect ups and downs, and I think you will see that as you read on that is very much the case.
Her respiratory system has always been very impressive, and she really has had very few problems with this. She has been on 1.5 liter low flow for quite some time now, which is a great thing. She's breathing room air, but still has a nose cannula in with, basically a humidfier blowing air into her lungs just to make sure they never completely deflate. A nurse the other day said she wouldn't be surprised if they don't start weaning her off that soon.
They did a brain scan the other day, which Matt failed to tell me came back clear. So, no brain bleeds, which is a great thing for a preemie! I've been worried about this since she was born and never knew that they had done the scan, so I was a little surprised when she told me "Oh, and you knew her brain scan came back clear, right?" Matt received a stern look from me, poor guy, he's had to try and remember so much while I was stuck down in my hospital room waiting to see my own doctors.
A couple days ago we learned her sodium level was down, so they have been giving her sodium supplements ever since.
That same day, she had another spell of not digesting her feeding like they would want. So, she's back off of feeding. I'm bummed about this because I want that little girl to eat so she can grow! She was up to 5 cc's every 4 hours, which was great.
Yesterday we found out that Harper's CBC was shifted. What does that mean? Well, I shall tell you. Your bone marrow shoots out white blood cells, but when you have an infection, it will shoot out immature white blood cells as well (kind of like, rookie blood cells, they aren't quite ready for battle) . When your body has an infection, your CBC will show that you have a higher level of immature white blood cells. So, we know she has some sort of infection. We aren't sure where the infection is though. They are growing a blood culture and a urine culture, to see what type of an infection it is. But, it takes days to grow the cultures (although, they will check them every day). They put her on 3 types of antibiotics, which will hopefully kill whatever infection she has, maybe even before we know for sure what it was. One of the antibiotics will kill any infection in her bowels and the other 2 will wipe anything else out. They are being very proactive by giving her all these, trying to wipe out absolutely anything they think it could be. Their two best guesses right now are something related to her bowels since she has had a couple of spells now where her bowels haven't been able to handle her feedings. Or a urinary tract infection because when she was 2 days old she had a little rash in her groin area (which they cleared up right away with an ointment), and that was awfully close to her urethra so it could have gotten up in there and caused a UTI.
It sounds worriesome to me that my little girl has an infection, but the bright spot is that Harper must not know she has an infection because she doesn't act like she's sick. The nurses still say she is feisty and cries when she's supposed to and is playful with them. I just want to be able to hold her and make her all better.
Okay - with all that said, this is what we know from today so far.
Today - her red blood cells that carry hemoglobin count is low, which is yet another sign she has an infecion. Just another thing to keep an eye on. They did a X-ray on her bowels this morning to see if there was something going on in her bowels but we don't know those results yet. Hopefully, they will be clear and they can resume feedings. She's had several poopy diapers (of which Matt has been changing), so you would think that things are moving down there.
Her sodium levels have increased, but they will still keep her on supplements for awhile. The sodium level may have something to do with the infection, but it could also not be related at all. We shall see.

Well, there you have it. Medically, that's a pretty good update for you. I'm sure these will be shorter updates from here on out. :)
Non-medically speaking, Matt and I do get to take her temperature and change her diapers. And we have been able to hold her several times. We get to do skin-to-skin holding for an hour at a time. I've held her 4 times and Matt just once. As much as I would like that to be more even, they prefer mommy to hold more. I still hate leaving her at the end of the evening, but I know that she is in EXCELLENT care and we can call in for an update whenever we want.

Looking forward to seeing mom and dad today, they will be here in a little while and then we will head up to the hospital.

More to come....