Everything's Alright, Everything's Fine

Yesterday was Amelia's weekly eye exam. It was the second week in a row I waited and waited for the opthamologist and she came after I finally gave up and went to pump. Todd was very insistent that I track her down to talk to her about Amelia's eyes. There was only so much we could figure out by looking at the doctor's notes and doing research on the Internet. By the time I was done I had spoken to the neonatal nurse practicioner, the head of the NICU program (our doctor), the opthomologist's assistant and the head lady herself. No one seems to know how to explain ROP. Dr. Khan did a good job of explaining the structure of the eye and in general what happens with ROP, but only Dr. Hitner was able to really tell me what is going on with Amelia.

Amelia's ROP in her right eye has progressed a little bit and has stayed the same in her left eye. Amelia has several things going for her. She has a large retina, she has not developed plus disease, and she is getting old enough where her eyes have matured beyond the truly dangerous time frame. Plus disease is when the abnormal vessels growing begin to grow outward and become squiggly shaped, pulling the retina away from the wall of the eye. The developent of plus disease is serious and requires immediate surgery. It is also dubbed "rush disease" because of how quickly it progresses. Her vessels have grown out to Zone 2 Medium...once her eyes have matured to Zone 2 Large I think we are pretty much out of the woods and her ROP will correct itself.

Our nurse yesterday has my mom's unusual name. It was very weird to hear her name all day long. So Glenna was taking care of Amelia, but not Grammy Glenna.

She pretty much slept all day long. She was tightly swaddled and only her face was exposed. She had her new blanket around her upper torso and the nurse had made a little hood out of it to shield her eyes which had been dialated for the eye exam. It also covered her ears a bit. I was glad for that because the isolette used to shield her a bit from all the stimuli. She lost some weight last night, but not a tremendous amount. That is not unanticipated because her body is having to work a little harder to keep her warmth.

She had a bad blood gas this morning with a CO2 of 90. We aren't sure why. Her rate did go down yesterday to 18 BPM from 20. Her other primary, Patsy, suctioned her out and her treatment of Allbuterol was given to her after the blood gas, so maybe these two things will help her out. As always, we need to hear what the doctors say at rounds to know where we go from here.