Sunday, November 16, 2008

Unexpected Blessings

Well, Brynn is giving us some hope that she'll be able to avoid surgery. Since the Ibuprofen clearly wasn't working after 2 days of treatment, they switched her over to a medicine called indomethacin (aka indocine)--which has some unfortunate side effects, but is much better than the trauma of surgery on her little body. Because the new meds constrict the blood vessels (thus hopefully it will constrict the PDA), it also constricts the blood flow to the gut and she isn't able to digest food. Feeding her at this stage of the game would only serve to introduce an infection in the digestive tract. So she's back to IV feedings and nutrients.

To be quite frank, the doctors didn't expect either Ibuprofen or Indomethacin to work because once the baby is two weeks old (Brynn will be three weeks old tomorrow), the chances of these drugs working is slim to none. Understandably, I had prepared myself for the idea of her having surgery.

But then the ecocardiagram results came back shockingly optimistic. At first the cardiologist thought it was completely closed because nothing was visible from her view on the machine, but then she could see a tiny leak of oxygen through the PDA passageway above the heart. When she switched views, she could see a tiny opening still there, but the shrinkage was so drastic they called off the surgery and increased the number of days Brynn would be on the Indocin. By Tuesday her regimen will be over and they will do another ecocardiogram to see if it did, in fact, completely close. We are hoping against hope that it will.

Aside from this, since I have a yeast infection and we don't want it to infect baby, Matt got to do Kangaroo Care. It was so sweet. He just kept saying, "I love my baby Brynn. I love my baby so much." What a fun time for both of us, although he worried much that his hairy chest would stick to Brynn's face! I'll post pictures soon--and perhaps a VIDEO since Matt's parents got us an early Christmas present and it is the coolest tiny video camera I've ever seen. So exciting!

Lastly I have to add--Brynn is getting FAT! She now weighs 790 grams, which is just shy of 1 lb 12 oz. Wow. Her arms are starting to look chubby and even her hands, from the wrist to the knuckles, are looking fat. It's funny that even though I see her every day, I can REALLY tell she's growing. Tomorrow evening is when they take the measurements of her head circumference and body length so we'll get to see how much bigger she actually is.

Love,
Natalie

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I can't wait to see those pictures!

-Anna

nikkicrumpet said...

Wow what an amazing story. I am in awe at how you are handling tough circumstances. I'm glad your baby is doing so great. When I read what she weighed I about fell off my chair! I hope things continue to get better and she keeps getting stronger and healthier. What a little miracle she is!

Heather said...

haha, matt's chest hair comment made me laugh really hard!!! Oh dear...i am so glad to hear that the medicine is working for Brynn! I miss you and love you! I hope mom is a good help there!