Day 3 - PM update

This has been a roller coaster of a day. We began the morning with high hopes that taking Erin off of the prostaglandins would work as well as taking her off of the oxygen. Unfortunately, things didn't go so well. Her oxygen level continued to drop to alarming levels, dipping under 80 several times. As a result, she was placed back on oxygen to get her levels back up. She wasn't happy at all about the oxygen cannula in her nose, and fought with the nurse and myself as we were trying to attach it. However, even the oxygen isn't helping, and her levels are not rising.

The doctors ordered yet another echo cardiogram to determine what was happening. As I am learning, babies have a duct that helps get blood to the lungs when they are first born. Within a few weeks, that duct closes off as it is no longer needed. The purpose of the prostaglandins is to keep the duct open to promote the blood flow. Once the prostaglandins is stopped, it typically takes 24 - 48 hours to close. In rare cases, it can close very quickly. Well, Erin is one in a million in every way and this was no different. Hers closed almost immediately , resulting in the decreased oxygen saturation levels.

I also learned that babies have great pulmonary resistance when first born, making the artery work even harder than normal. This resistance typically fades over a few weeks. The hope now is that as this resistance fades, Erin's underdeveloped pulmonary artery will be able to increase the flow of oxygenated blood to the lungs. If that happens and her oxygenation levels come up, we can send her home to get bigger and stronger before surgery. Otherwise, we do it now.

That's a long way of saying that we had high hopes, great disappointment, and in the end more of the unknown to deal with today. I am sitting here with Erin writing this, wondering where this story will lead. We now no longer have the hope that she will be out of the ICU anytime in the relatively near future. We fully expect that she will be here for most of next week, on a best case basis. We believe that she will be just fine, but the road will be a little bumpier than we were hoping when today started.

I'm sorry if this is too much detail, but I do find it therapeutic. It's amazing how fast time flies. It is 7 pm, and I have been here for 11 hours, and yet it feels like only a few.