I wanted to get this down so we had as much time to pray for this as possible. In one week Karsie is going to have another EEG test. We need to pray that those tests come back normal. If they do, it means that Karsie's brain has been able to fix itself. If not, it means that it suffered a hit that is probably irreversible. This could be as serious as cerebral palsy or mental retardation caused by her traumatic entry into this world.
The hopeful news is that the first week in a preemie's life, the EEG is a bit unreliable because of the healing it needs to do anyway. Therefore, the neurologist thinks it's possible it was just a bum test. Also, all of her organs are healthy (she's peeing...remember when we were excited about that...this is why) and she is not having seizures. The neurologist said that he is cautiously optomistic that the next test will be a bit better, but we still ask for some serious prayer for this specifically (along with all the other things we have asked you to pray for). We continue to be very appreciative of your faithfulness.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Another Prayer Request
Karsie just had her bandages changed. She did great. This means she is getting a bit more stable. Also, Dr. Losasso is very happy with the way things are looking. It was repeated to me again that this was going to be a multiple month process, but her vitals are still looking good. We are having a meeting with our doctors today to go over some specifics of Karsie's progression, but one thing that is a newer development is worth adding the the prayer checklist.
Along with praying for her to do well on the ventilator, her blood pressure, and her brain tests, we need to pray for her bowel as well. It looked slightly discolored today. This could be a number of things, many of which not serious at all, but it is being watched. The surgeon didn't seem to think it was a huge deal immediately, but he definitely is wanting to watch it. He thought maybe the angle at which the siloh was hung needed to be changed. Anyway, something new to add on to the list. Eventually, we hope to start taking things off the list, but we'll probably add more before we start to eliminate.
Along with praying for her to do well on the ventilator, her blood pressure, and her brain tests, we need to pray for her bowel as well. It looked slightly discolored today. This could be a number of things, many of which not serious at all, but it is being watched. The surgeon didn't seem to think it was a huge deal immediately, but he definitely is wanting to watch it. He thought maybe the angle at which the siloh was hung needed to be changed. Anyway, something new to add on to the list. Eventually, we hope to start taking things off the list, but we'll probably add more before we start to eliminate.
Morning Update (7-21)
Last night seemed to be another good night. She does well at night. Her oxygen levels have continued to look excellent to the point that they have weened her down into the 30's. For a reference, she was in the 90-100 range the first night and a little the second day. I may be completely wrong, but I think that's a percentage of her own oxygen intake. In other words she is getting about 70% of her oxygen by herself now that it is in the 30's.
In our blitz of picture posting I realized that there hasn't been a ton of explanation of things that have been happening, so I will try to post all of the significant happenings going on currently.
EEG results - I am still waiting for the results of the abnormal EEG. We cheated yesterday and had another doctor find out what was read and what that means so we didn't have to wait for the results and possibly a doctor that has the personality of a lizard. When they measured her brain it looked like she had periods of high activity followed by periods of lower than normal activity. The doctor we talked to told us that he would have been absolutely shocked if that test came back normal based on her first hour of life. While the possibility still exists she could have very serious brain damage, some signs look good that she may just be showing us that her brain is still in recovery right now. One of those signs is her other organ functions. Remember when I told you a couple of days ago that she peed and we are happy about that? This means her kidneys are functioning. This is important because when there is major blood loss to a person, the body does an amazing job of keeping vital organs happy. The body will start to shut down organs like kidneys and bowels and such to keep the heart and the brain still flowing with blood. Since her kidneys are still functioning, we hope that means her blood loss wasn't significant enough to her brain to begin the shutting down process. However, the actual test means that there is an irregular brain pattern now. They will continue to monitor her activity for a while to see if that continues for a longer period of time. The doctor told us that this initial test is not as important as the tests they will do in the next few weeks. If those start coming back the same way, then there is cause for more concern.
Michelle seems to be getting discharged today. She has done amazingly well and is now starting to do some more walking. We are waiting for the doctor to make the final word.
We are also waiting on the surgeon to see if they will change the bandages around Bob today. Karsie is getting pretty puffy and the initial bandages put on her incision are getting pretty tight. The surgeon wanted to wait for a more stable baby to change them, so we're waiting on that. He came in last night and was probably going to do so, but he must have gotten called in to surgery and hasn't been back.
When we were talking with the doctor about the EEG, he also gave us the full story of Karsie's birth. He was the same doctor that came in and told us that they were able to get Karsie stable. We understand the situation very similar to what actually happened. However, what makes things interesting is that at birth, her stats were good. The assessment that was given right away was good. She turned pink. She cried. Things looked real good except for the ruptured omphalocele, but that wasn't the concerning part. The only thing that was not posted earlier was that her cord ruptured and actually shredded, so the bleeding was coming from there. The good news about this was that at no point was her heart rate low or stopped and there was still some blood flow throughout. This makes us hope that there may not have been as extensive a lack of blood to the brain as initially thought. We'll just have to wait (painfully) and see.
In our blitz of picture posting I realized that there hasn't been a ton of explanation of things that have been happening, so I will try to post all of the significant happenings going on currently.
EEG results - I am still waiting for the results of the abnormal EEG. We cheated yesterday and had another doctor find out what was read and what that means so we didn't have to wait for the results and possibly a doctor that has the personality of a lizard. When they measured her brain it looked like she had periods of high activity followed by periods of lower than normal activity. The doctor we talked to told us that he would have been absolutely shocked if that test came back normal based on her first hour of life. While the possibility still exists she could have very serious brain damage, some signs look good that she may just be showing us that her brain is still in recovery right now. One of those signs is her other organ functions. Remember when I told you a couple of days ago that she peed and we are happy about that? This means her kidneys are functioning. This is important because when there is major blood loss to a person, the body does an amazing job of keeping vital organs happy. The body will start to shut down organs like kidneys and bowels and such to keep the heart and the brain still flowing with blood. Since her kidneys are still functioning, we hope that means her blood loss wasn't significant enough to her brain to begin the shutting down process. However, the actual test means that there is an irregular brain pattern now. They will continue to monitor her activity for a while to see if that continues for a longer period of time. The doctor told us that this initial test is not as important as the tests they will do in the next few weeks. If those start coming back the same way, then there is cause for more concern.
Michelle seems to be getting discharged today. She has done amazingly well and is now starting to do some more walking. We are waiting for the doctor to make the final word.
We are also waiting on the surgeon to see if they will change the bandages around Bob today. Karsie is getting pretty puffy and the initial bandages put on her incision are getting pretty tight. The surgeon wanted to wait for a more stable baby to change them, so we're waiting on that. He came in last night and was probably going to do so, but he must have gotten called in to surgery and hasn't been back.
When we were talking with the doctor about the EEG, he also gave us the full story of Karsie's birth. He was the same doctor that came in and told us that they were able to get Karsie stable. We understand the situation very similar to what actually happened. However, what makes things interesting is that at birth, her stats were good. The assessment that was given right away was good. She turned pink. She cried. Things looked real good except for the ruptured omphalocele, but that wasn't the concerning part. The only thing that was not posted earlier was that her cord ruptured and actually shredded, so the bleeding was coming from there. The good news about this was that at no point was her heart rate low or stopped and there was still some blood flow throughout. This makes us hope that there may not have been as extensive a lack of blood to the brain as initially thought. We'll just have to wait (painfully) and see.
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