Little Jensen didn't look well yesterday, as I mentioned he had something going on with his tummy. It appears to be an infection, which they have started treating with antibiotics. The results from the blood taken will come back today which will confirm or deny the infection. Thankfully there is no perforation or bleeding. The doctor says the ibuprofen used to help close Jensen's duct could perhaps be the cause of his upset tummy, but regardless he has now ceased that medication, as the scans yesterday showed that his duct is now closing and has reduced from 3.8ml to 1.8ml, so is well on its way to closing. Once this is closed Jensen will feel better and his little system will be able to function more productively. The duct in babies born full term closes between 6 and 12 hours after birth. Before this, the placenta looks after the open duct, and once the placenta is gone the duct knows to close. Preemie babies take a little longer for theirs to close and usually need some assistance.
Today should be a nice quiet day for Jensen with lots of rest. I was speaking with the nurse educator Claire earlier (who is from Bury, UK.....he's just surrounded by the English here..Leeds, Manchester, Liverpool, Sheffield you name it) and she says the most important thing is that his lungs are working well, and it is a secondary problem with his tummy.
Amidst all the goings on of yesterday, I didn't even realise that Jensen had been returned to his usual mode of respiratory assistance. He was taken off the high frequency mode ventilation as his lungs were working too well, and essentially they were over ventilating him. The aspirates from his tummy (that is where they test the contents of his tummy to check digestion and so on) have been quite murky looking, but he has just been put on something to hopefully rectify this, and as the day has gone on the levels have decreased. His gases are good today (which include oxygen, carbon dioxide etc) his sodium a little low....this may be attributed to he no longer being in my tummy and he is missing out on his daily fix of twisties from mummy :).
This morning a burns specialist surgeon from Westmead hospital came to find us in the parent lounge. Note to doctors - please get straight to the point when introducing yourselves and your purpose for your visit to parents, none of this dilly dally small chat is required. We need to know straight away not to panic because of your presence. Anyway, he wanted our permission to use the burn (wound) on Jensen's leg to educate doctors and nurses in the future, and to publish and document his case in a medical journal, using pictorial evidence. Apparently there are another two cases of this having happened recently, at other hospitals, with the others being much more severe than Jensen's. I'll post a photo of Jensen's leg as it was last week, but the others I don't wish to share. We are more than happy to help educate nurses and assist in research necessary to inform such people on what may go wrong with such precious, fragile babies. His burn is not due to negligence or carelessness of the nurses, all babies, including those premature, are wiped with an alcohol wipe before having an injection. I guess the risk of infection if not, is high especially with the presence of fluids, blood and other secretions at times around during birth, and in Jensen's case, his skin was just too fragile to cope with it.
Jensen is part of some research in a couple of other areas too. I'm not sure if I mentioned previously, but the doctors here are researching the effects of probiotics on preemies, which we have agreed to, and also the effects of using iodine in the locating of blood lines, which we also agreed to. It turned out they could locate Jensen's without using the ink, but we were made aware of the side effects such as temporary thyroid dysfunction. All of this is being used as part of research in the care of premature babies, and therefore escalating the rates of survival and specialist care.
Stay tuned for tomorrow's post where I will be informing you on a new, somewhat creepy, product that I have found to help comfort little Jensen while mummy can't.
Posted with Blogsy
No comments:
Post a Comment