This morning's blood gas report: CO2 is 67. This is pretty good. They went down on her volume pressure (support the vent gives to her own breaths) at midnight. The Peak Pressure is still at 25. I am assuming when the doctors round they will make a decision on whether or not they want to wean her.
The eye doctor came around yesterday and Amelia has Stage 1 ROP (retinopathy of prematurity). The eye is divided into 3 zones. When a baby is born they are still developing their eyes and the veins are still in zone 1. Amelia's growth is currently a third of the way through zone 2. Once the eyes are fully mature, there is no more danger of ROP happening. The doctor said they will only worry if she develops stage 3 ROP. The doctor said her Stage 1 is "very light" and no cause for worry right now. She said her retina looks good. Babies with stage 1 usually have no visual impairment and the condition corrects itself. She will be checked every week until she is 41 weeks gestational age. Currently she is 35 weeks.
Here is an explaination of ROP I copied from the National Institute for Health: ROP occurs when abnormal blood vessels grow and spread throughout the retina, the tissue that lines the back of the eye. These abnormal blood vessels are fragile and can leak, scarring the retina and pulling it out of position. This causes a retinal detachment. Retinal detachment is the main cause of visual impairment and blindness in ROP. http://www.nei.nih.gov/health/rop/
In other news, Amelia was sucking on a pacifier yesterday. She had expressed no interest in it in the past, but one of our primaries had tried it with her the other day and she said she was sucking. So when they started up the feeds yesterday afternoon I put it in her mouth and you could see her chin move and her jaws moving. It was so cute. I had Todd take a picture with his camera phone and I will post it later.
Also, I had been told that a baby her age can lift its head and move it from side to side. The moving from side to side is impossible because of her vent tube, but I did witness her lift her head a couple times yesterday. She is getting stronger and maturing...all very good signs.
2 comments:
I can only imagine how cute she looks sucking on her pacifier, this seems sucha a huge step in the right direction.
I hope she can come home soon.
Sounds like she is getting so strong!! Guess who is moving to the pod? Yeah, they are going to be pod buddies again.
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