May 2, 2007

"Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; his greatness no one can fathom. One generation will commend your works to another; they will tell of your mighty acts. They will speak of the glorious splendor of your majesty, and I will meditate on your wonderful works." Psalm 145:3-7

We are praising God continuially. Every time we see Kyle increase in any area we give thanks. Every day we spend with him is a blessing. We can not fathom His greatness but we know He is worthy of all our praise.

Kyle continues to do great on CPAP. His PEEP (air pressure) is still on 6 (the goal is 4) and his oxygen has been between 29% and 33%. Throughout the day and night Monday, after they lowered his PEEP to 6, Kyle had a few "A's and B's." He has receovered nicely and has not had any since, but the doctors are going to continue to go slow on lowering his PEEP to give Kyle suffcient time to adjust. Another part of the NICU shuffle, now that Kyle is on CPAP, is "A's and B's," apeneas and bradycardias. Apneas (A's) are episodes when the baby forgets to breathe. These are often followed by bradycardias (B's), when the heartrate drops below 100 or stops beating all together (Kyle's normal heartrate is around 150). A's and B's are a standard part of the preemie experience. Their brains aren't mature enough to regulate breathing, so occasionally they just stop. Usually they'll start again on their own, but if they don't a little alarm goes off and the nurse will either stimulate the baby by patting his feet or chest, or will give him manual breaths by bagging him. He has had bradycardias (verb: he has "bradyed") a few times when he was just mad about something, usually when the nurses were suctioning him. Sounds serious, doesn't it, spontaneously forgetting to breathe and then stopping your heart! But the nurses refer to "A's and B's" casually, in the same tone of voice you might use if discussing, say, "hangnails and papercuts." A's and B's are just part of life for preemies. Luckily the monitors catch them right away, and the nurses are always just a step or two away when they happen.

The doctors are continuing to look for signs of the CMV "attacking" Kyle...typical places of attack are a baby's brain, liver, eyes and/or lungs. Yesterday he had a head ultrsasound and thankfully everything came back fine. The enzymes in Kyle's liver are normal, and all of his eye exams have been good. The only area where the doctors have a question about is his lungs...the CMV could have caused his bouts with pneumonia, but just as easily, the vent could have been the source of pneumonia. Right now, the doctors are waiting on the results of the quantitative CMV test that was done last Thursday. Once they have this, they will take all of the data they have collected relating to his CMV to an infectious disease specialist to determine if Kyle should receive treatment. The medication that is used to treat CMV has some serious side effects, so they will only give it to him if they feel that the CMV is going to cause some long term damage that might be avoided with medication. Please pray for a positive outcome.

We thank you again for all the comments and prayers. God bless!!

In Christ Alone,

Jennifer, Joe, Madison and Kyle