Before she comes home, Summer will need to be on a more stable feeding regiment. They have upped her amount she takes with the binky trainer, but this may change. He is thinking he might adjust her feeds so that she gets a larger amount through her tube continuously and just use the binky trainer for practice, not counting the food she takes in as part of her needed nutrition. By doing this, she can have less TPN, which would be better for her liver. While we are waiting for all this to even out, she has a few other issues that still need to be resolved. Some of her lab work came back with higher numbers than they would like to see today, so they are re-checking her numbers on Thursday.
The doc also reviewed her chart and mentioned something I thought had been resolved. A few days ago, a neurologist came in and let me know they had done a CAT scan because of something they saw on a cranial ultrasound. When Summer first arrived in the NICU at Children's they had done a scan and found a possible grade 1 brain bleed. After re-checking it they decided it was not significant and were not concerned about it anymore. When she was transferred to the floor, they repeated an ultrasound and saw something so they did a CAT scan. The CAT scan revealed some fluid in part of her brain. At this point, she looks fine, she is moving appropriately and there is nothing surgically or otherwise they can do about it. They will repeat the CAT scan in a month to check the status. There is no way they can predict if it will cause permanent damage at this point...no way to know what kind of future this will mean for her. I am trying not to worry too much about this, but it you are a parent, you know that is easier said than done.
So, please keep the prayers coming...hopefully we will be seeing Summer at home before too much longer...
Today the nurse and I gave Summer a bath
She loved the warm water...at first
She is looking chubbier...she weighs about 7 pounds and 12 weeks old today!
