The Roller Coaster Begins

5/27/2012
They told us that we were in for a roller coaster ride with these girls.  I've tried to keep it in perspective and stay calm, but today's drop was rough.  Heidi got a call from the NICU telling us that Lillian had to be intubated again and Evalyn had to be moved to a more aggressive respirator because her lungs were collapsing.

I skipped church to go to the NICU with Heidi.  Lillian was doing well in spite of being intubated, we knew that was fairly likely at this gestational age.  This machine helping Evalyn breath is awful.  An oscillatory ventilator uses a piston to send puffs of air into her lungs.  This helps to keep the lungs inflated without doing damage to the very delicate tissues.  Because of the rapid cycling her little body vibrates like she is on a massage chair.  They have to put her on some pain medications to ease the inherit discomfort of the machine.

We had to go home but came back in the evening and the doctor was standing next to Evalyn's bed.  Evalyn's lung functioning was continuing to deteriorate and they weren't sure why.  The two most likely causes were infection or her PDA had opened back up.  This would cause too much blood to go to her lungs and inhibit the lung function.

While reviewing the x-rays with the doctor out of the blue he asked us if we were Mormon.  He grew up in Utah and did his undergrad at U of U (I'll let that slide).  He was pretty excited that I went to BYU and studied psychology at about the same time as his best friend.  This conversation came just as I was wondering how I was going to ask for some privacy so I could give Evalyn a Priesthood blessing.  Knowing that he understood something of our faith helped ease my fears that they wouldn't want me to disturb Evalyn.  He was fully supportive and I am very grateful.

The ultrasound tech got there very quickly, something that doesn't ever seem to happen in the hospital.  We were fortunate that the tech was able to get a good read in spite of the ventilator that makes this difficult.  Evalyn's PDA is back.  While this isn't great news at least the doctors know how to treat it.  They will start out with a round of medication that helps to close this.  She had already received one round earlier, needing two rounds is not uncommon. It will take about 3 days to administer the medication and reassess the PDA.  If this treatment doesn't work they will need to fly her to UCLA where they would clamp the hole.

We are very hopeful that the medication will work.  If you're the praying type she can really use your prayers.  If you're not the praying type . . . you should be ;-)