Roller Coaster

Emotions in the NICU completely redefine volatility. By comparison, the financial markets are a bunch of weenies. Almost all the news we received today was positive. Though we are extremely cautious and guarded in our optimism, today is a much better day than yesterday.

Last night's MRI went better. Lewis was sedated, intubated, MRI'd and extubated uneventfully. We're meeting with the neurologist tomorrow to get more detail on the results. Preliminarily, the attending physician told us that there were "some lesions deep in his brain, but overall it looked much better than I expected".

Respiratory - the doctors caved - Lewis won the nasal cannula battle. He had been yanking at it whenever he was awake. Today, they decided he didn't need it. He's been without it since this morning and so far so good. He's still not swallowing his secretions, but he is coughing more, which is a good sign.

Feeding - 18 ml/h right now through the naso-gastric tube, with plans to go up to 21 ml/h tonight. 21 ml/h is full feeding, so he'd be taken completely off his IV nutrition at that point. (He'll still have the IV for clear fluids and meds, but not food). So far, no reflux, the Reglan seems to be working.

Tests - the positive Staph culture from Sunday is not MRSA (antibiotic resitant staph). This means that the antibiotics Lewis has been on since Sunday are the right ones for both the Strep B and Staph.

Full day tomorrow. We have meetings with the speech therapist and neurologist and a couple of other Doc appts. I'm going to go visit Lewis now.