Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Gah.

All right, which one of you uncrossed their fingers?

After a darn good day yesterday, Jane decided to make things interesting. Again. At midnight or thereabouts, she went right back up to 100% on the oxygen thanks to another unexplainable collapse in her lungs. Apparently, migrating collapse like Jane's (it has a highly technical name that I did NOT hear properly. It does begin with an A, if that helps -- the point is that she has small areas of her lungs that are slightly collapsed, and that those areas shift around, as you might suspect from the "migrating" part of the phrase) is a common effect of the oscillating vent. So, they're trying her on a new one: the jet ventilator. It's pretty similar to the oscillator (they both use high frequency pulses to deliver air), but the doctors will have more control over the expansion of Jane's lungs. Hopefully.

Remember the old set up around her crib? Well, here it is today:


The white machine is the INO (inhaled nitric oxide) vent. The array between Jane and the INO vent? Oh, that's just the monitor for the jet ventilator. Here's the actual vent:


Yes, that little box IN THE ISOLETTE is the vent. That's it. (I love the expression on her face here. "You couldn't just give me a teddy bear?") If this doesn't help her, they may put her on the conventional vent again, which would also help with the lung expansion. The jet's gentler, which is why they're trying it first.

Speaking of the isolette, someone is getting big enough AND old enough that she's not going to be in it for long. She's SIX WEEKS OLD today, and 1570 grams! Which puts her at 33 weeks gestational age and almost three and a half pounds, which means it's time for Miss Jane to get ready for a move to an open bed. Hey, it's something, right?

1 comment:

mommatosena said...

Oh Tia the hardest part of all of this is for every step ahead there always seems to be a little skip back as well...6 wks and headed for the big girl bed...the only thing better will be her own crib when she is home...until then enjoy the new books that are heaven sent and feel the warmth of prayer that surrounds you and yours....