04/27/2007

Now, the good news about Mr. Emmers. Emery's chest x-ray on Monday was well overexpanded, and his CO2 was... get this... 47!!!! They got rid of his rate and went down on his pressures another 1 cm of water pressure, and he's now on straight CPAP. He's still at a very high PEEP pressure of 14, but if all goes well they will wean it about 1 to 2 cm a week. By about 6 cm of water pressure they will switch him to high-flow nasal cannula. Last night I called and the nurse told the clerk to call her back because she couldn't get Emery calmed down. I really didn't think anything of it. He's fussy pretty much all of the time. I think I've only seen him happy or content on a handful of occasions, but apparently this was very bad. I can't gauge exactly how bad it is but they had to sedate him. Again, no big deal to me. He always gets sedated. The grandparents did get to hold, but apparently Emery continued to be very fussy and uncomfortable. He wasn't able to maintain his saturations above 80% even at 100% oxygen. So, they did a kidney ultrasound and the poor baby has a kidney stone! Unfortunately, they have to try and let it pass. I feel so bad for the boy. I was terrified I got him sick because I have a cold right now, and for some odd reason I was relieved it was a kidney stone, and then I came to my senses and realized how painful those were. I had to take breast milk up there tonight and I scrubbed up, gloved and masked and dropped it off and I only peaked at him, but he was sleeping and satting well. Keep little love in your prayers. I don't know what they do if the kidney stone obstructs, like if they go in and do a shock-wave lithotripsy or not. They have been giving him morphine and they are keeping an eye on it. That's all for Mr. Em. I won't be going to see him tomorrow because I'm sick. HopeI'll be better Sunday. He weighs over 8 pounds now!