Making Progress

Overall Greyson had a good weekend. He is still off the jet ventilator which is great. However, his stats are swinging on the new vent, meaning he is back to desating. His oxygen continues to dip but Grey has the ability to bring it back up again. This makes me sweat a bit but I am comforted by his nurses saying “this is typical preemie behavior.” Although he continues to desat, we are going down on his vent settings- this means he is being weaned from the ventilator a little each day and having to work harder to breathe.

Another echogram was done on Friday and there is still a PDA- however, this one is smaller. The previous PDA was small to moderate and this PDA was trivial. This is also good news because there was a good chance that the PDA would open wider since Grey was fighting an infection last week. Greyson is now testing negative to the previous staph infection. We will continue antibiotics for another few days to ensure the infection is gone.

Now an update on the PICC line. In my last post I explained that Greyson would have his PICC line replaced Friday at another site in his arm. I was happy to learn on Friday that we are going to hold off on that procedure. Greyson is doing so good with his feedings that we may no longer need a PICC line. Furthermore, the PICC line has been used for administration of total parenteral nutrition therapy (TPN). Grey receives extra nutrients through this PICC line. However, the PICC line is not needed if he can tolerate his feeds. As of today, he is tolerating his feeds and continuously receives a small amount of breast milk via feeding tube.

I haven’t captured a photo with the pacifier because he doesn’t seem that interested when I try to slide it in- he probably doesn’t want another object in his mouth right now. Maybe Matthew can snap a photo of the fit he throws when I change his diaper. He turns bright red, arches his back and jerks his little legs around! It makes me laugh and feel sad at the same time.