See-saw

Things are teetering here. Jane's pretty goddamned sick and the doctor Tom spoke with today was very honest. They simply don't know if she's going to make it. They also don't know that she's not. They don't yet know if she's fighting an infection or pneumonia along with the BPD, and they don't know if her lungs will recover quickly enough to surpass the damage the vents are doing even as they keep her alive.

They weren't sure she'd make it yesterday. They weren't sure she'd still be alive when we got to the hospital, and I didn't know it until today. The doctor felt a lot better about her today than he did yesterday, but he told Tom she's walking a knife edge, and they're running out of tricks.

Yeah.

HOWEVER, she's doing better today than she was yesterday. Her oxygen level was down to 58% at 8 pm, most of the labs have come back negative for infection so far, and the doctor thought today's x-ray was an improvement over yesterday's. The night nurse, who also had Jane Friday night, said she looked much better and was resting well. And one of the best bits of news is that she's responding so well to the change in the vent settings -- they're fine tuning the pressure settings, and she's doing really well with where they've got her. They're able to keep her lungs open without overdoing it.

The doctor pointed out to Tom that the architecture of her lungs is constantly changing, in good as well as not-so-good directions. She's constantly scarring and healing. They've seen a lot of kids recover from this. Babies are tough little things, and you just can't predict how any particular baby will do.

She's fighting hard, our girl Jane.