Things are slowly getting better. Cooper pooped yesterday! He is now being fed every 3 hours, but now we are starting to see signs of reflux again so instead of getting his feeds over 20 minutes, they are going to deliver his feeds over a continuous drip. He will be getting 10mL an hour, so 30 every 3 hours. He was 4 lbs 11 oz last night, but he is still on IV fluids and still looks a little puffy.
Cooper's hernia is still easily reduced and they plan to do the surgery to close the hole so it will not be an issue anymore. Possibly by the end of this week, but the doctors are now concerned about another issue. Cooper has stridor, which is loud, labored breathing. We noticed the stridor a couple of weeks ago, but I didn't know what it was called or even that it was an issue.
They seem concerned about it so ENT came by yesterday to view his throat with a scope through his nose. It was so cool to see! The only abnormality they could see was that his vocal chords are not opening as far as they would expect but that his level of stridor wouldn't be caused by that unless his vocal chords were hardly opening at all. They believe the issue is below the vocal chords. To see that, ENT will do an operation tomorrow morning where they will put Cooper under anesthesia, align his airway, and use a rigid scope through the vocal chords.
They expect to possibly see scarring from having multiple intubations, which may be partially blocking his airway. If so they can use a laser or balloon to open his airway at that time. While I don't want Cooper to have any issues, I am hoping that they find scarring and can fix it right away so we will have an answer and a solution so he can get back to normal.
Since he will be put under, the doctors are considering doing the hernia surgery at the same time. No word on a decision yet, but I'm hoping they just get it all done at once!
On a very happy note, since Cooper has kept his apnea and bradycardia very minimal and doesn't have any episodes of low blood oxygen, they decided to take him off all respiratory support yesterday evening. He had only one bradycardia last night, but kept his blood oxygen up so he is still on room air with no respiratory assistance! Yay!
I am still in a sleeper room in the hospital, but since Cooper is stable and no longer needs the critical care of the NICU, he will probably be moving to a regular room in the medical or surgical unit. Once he is out of the NICU I won't be eligible for a sleeper room anymore. I'm hoping to get a call back from the Ronald McDonald House. They are full so I'm on the waiting list.
Again, thank you for all the prayers! I'll keep updating as things progress.
Cooper's hernia is still easily reduced and they plan to do the surgery to close the hole so it will not be an issue anymore. Possibly by the end of this week, but the doctors are now concerned about another issue. Cooper has stridor, which is loud, labored breathing. We noticed the stridor a couple of weeks ago, but I didn't know what it was called or even that it was an issue.
They seem concerned about it so ENT came by yesterday to view his throat with a scope through his nose. It was so cool to see! The only abnormality they could see was that his vocal chords are not opening as far as they would expect but that his level of stridor wouldn't be caused by that unless his vocal chords were hardly opening at all. They believe the issue is below the vocal chords. To see that, ENT will do an operation tomorrow morning where they will put Cooper under anesthesia, align his airway, and use a rigid scope through the vocal chords.
They expect to possibly see scarring from having multiple intubations, which may be partially blocking his airway. If so they can use a laser or balloon to open his airway at that time. While I don't want Cooper to have any issues, I am hoping that they find scarring and can fix it right away so we will have an answer and a solution so he can get back to normal.
Since he will be put under, the doctors are considering doing the hernia surgery at the same time. No word on a decision yet, but I'm hoping they just get it all done at once!
On a very happy note, since Cooper has kept his apnea and bradycardia very minimal and doesn't have any episodes of low blood oxygen, they decided to take him off all respiratory support yesterday evening. He had only one bradycardia last night, but kept his blood oxygen up so he is still on room air with no respiratory assistance! Yay!
I am still in a sleeper room in the hospital, but since Cooper is stable and no longer needs the critical care of the NICU, he will probably be moving to a regular room in the medical or surgical unit. Once he is out of the NICU I won't be eligible for a sleeper room anymore. I'm hoping to get a call back from the Ronald McDonald House. They are full so I'm on the waiting list.
Again, thank you for all the prayers! I'll keep updating as things progress.
No comments:
Post a Comment