Monday, December 8, 2014

I haven't seen Connor since Friday because Mike came down with a cold and I couldn't risk spreading anything to the little man. 

He had a big day today. He now weighs 950 grams! Connor's primary nurse (she requested to be assigned to him for every shift she works) said she can't wait for him to get to 1 kg so she can put up his "congrats on getting to 1 kg" poster that she made. She makes all of this at home in her spare time. How awesome is that? Also, one of the volunteers had made him a Christmas decoration that is taped to his isolette. 

Connor's blood culture from Friday came back negative so they know that he doesn't have a bacterial infection from the PICC line that they removed last week. (Any time they remove an IV line that has been in for awhile they have to culture it to make sure it didn't introduce an infection). Now they have to figure out why he has increased secretions in his chest. While I was visiting, they took a chest x-ray. It turns out that Connor has a second bout of pneumonia caused by a different bug, since his culture from four days ago was negative. 

He was also switched to a more gentle ventilator this weekend to protect his lungs. This one doesn't have the high frequency oscillation so his breathing is more natural. He will be getting another blood transfusion (sixth one so far?) to boost his hemoglobin and needs another PICC line at some point but there was no doctor available to put one in today so it will have to wait until tomorrow. Since we couldn't put a PICC line in, he got a new IV line placed instead. He couldn't be sedated to put it in since he had no IV yet so he jumped with the first poke and needed a second attempt in another vein. Poor little man. He was started in IV antibiotics (gentamicin and vancomycin) again to combat the pneumonia.

He had all of his measurements done for his individualized fortification study while I was there. They measured his length, head circumference, and body composition. I helped hold him still and settle him while they were measuring and could feel the crackles I his chest from the pneumonia. He is tolerating his feedings well and is now back up to 11ml every two hours. He is also getting some fentanyl for pain prior to every handling because he hates being touched right now.