Sickness

Well, it must be a family thing.  First Hudson got sick over the weekend, then Kim and now me.  This means that we cannot see Hudson until we are better.  The last thing Kim or I want is to make Hudson or any baby in the NICU sicker because we brought a virus in with us.  There probably won't be any pictures for a few days, but we may find a way to get creative.  The good news is the phone works well so that is how we get our updates.

This afternoon Hudson has a blood transfusion because his hematacrit was low, 28 I think.  He tolerated that well.  He also had a stomach xray done this afternoon which showed the air in his intestine had moved from its previous location, thus implying no blockage. Yay! However, it is enough to warrant a concern so they are monitoring that.  He also had a chest xray done as well and while he had good expansion - 9 ribs expanded, he showed some haziness.  So they upped the LPM's to 5.0.  If his respiratory gets any worse, they will most likely move him back to the CPAP machine. I asked the reasoning and the NPP told me they can monitoring his breathing needs much better on the CPAP than the vapotherm.  The vapotherm isn't the most accurate in terms of the settings on the machine and the expected outcome due to a variety of reasons, one of which is not having his nostrils sealed so that all of the air gets to his lungs, inevitably some of it escapes back out his nose thus losing so air.  We'll wait and see how he does.  The last I knew his oxygen needs were around 24%.

The surgeon came back in to dilate his stoma and some air came out, he does not believe there is an obstruction at this time.

I asked the NPP what could be the cause of the major episodes he has been having.

1. UTI has progressed into his blood - waiting on results, will take about 48 hours to know for sure.
2. His reserves are gone.  The way I understood it is if your power goes out and you have a generator, it doesn't work either because you are out of fuel to run it. Because Hudson's reserves have been wiped out, he has nothing to fall back on when he decides to have a Brady or apnic episode.  The reserves in these cases typically would kick start him back in the right direction but without them, he falls lower and lower.
3. Could be a variety of issues. This isn't comforting but at least they were honest.

I asked what the game plan was for tomorrow, Thanksgiving, and they did not know yet.  They were going to see how he did overnight and go from there.  That's the Hudson we know and love, not letting anyone plan for him.

He did get weighed today, 5 pounds and 11 ounces.  He is still gaining weight, this is good.  Since his blood transfusion he has not had any major episodes, lets keep our fingers crossed, all 5 or 10 of them, however many you may have. :-)