Day 50

Thank you for all your prayers and thoughts and words of encouragement. Curly Q is doing much, much better. More tests revealed that she did, in fact, have an infection. They just weren't sure where the infection was. It wasn't a urinary tract infection. It wasn't an ear infection. They even did a lumbar puncture to make sure it wasn't a spine infection. The Docs said that they often don't find what type of infection the babies have, they just know that the antibiotics work. I think this was the case with Curly Q, the course of antibiotics seem to make her feel much better. What a relief. I don't think I've ever been so grateful for an infection. It is so much better than the unknown. And they know how to fix infections.

Curly Q's recovery is going slowly. Today they were finally able to take her off the ventilator. Hooray! They moved her right to a high flow nasal cannula. They are trying to skip her CPAP (elephant nose mask). Hopefully, she'll be able to stay off of it. Today they were able to restart feedings, just a teaspoon at each feeding. Hopefully her tummy will be able to handle it. Last night, she weighed 6 lb 3 oz. This about where she was a week ago when she got sick.

During all of this, the Docs started talking to us about a real possibility that Curly Q might need a blood transfusion. Now, this sounds super scary, but according to the Docs, its a very common thing in the NICU. Curly Q's hemoglobin (red blood cell) count was low. It's been progressively getting lower and lower over the last several weeks. They put her on an iron supplement with her vitamins to try and help. When she got sick, her body was slower to reproduce those red blood cells than normal. Plus, they kept taking blood samples to test what was wrong, which made it hard for her body to catch up. Those red blood cells help oxygen travel in the body, so this would potentially help with her respiratory problems. The last several days, her hemoglobin levels have hovered right on the boarder of needing a transfusion. Right now, the Docs are waiting to see if her body can raise the levels on her own.

This last week has been a crazy one. Intubation. Anderson Tube. PICC line. Lumbar Puncture. Blood Transfusion. Lots of scary terminology, but I am so grateful that she is being taken care of in the hospital. And she is doing better!