Update: heading for another down

I was hoping to write tonight about Lucas's awesome progress with his feeding and how great he's doing. He was up to 6.5 ml of food today, but at 5 PM, it was decided that due to some medicine he now needs to get to close his PDA, he cannot be fed while on it. Doing so may cause infection such as necrotizing enterocolitis. Lucas had two lung scans today. The first one this morning came back hazy indicating fluid in the lungs again. He was given a diuretic to help him get rid of the excess fluids in his body this morning. He gained some weight last night, over an ounce and a half, but the doctors believe this is water weight mostly. He weighed in at 1 lb 9 oz last night.

He had another lung scan at 4:30 PM and it showed that his lungs have gotten worse since this morning. There are a few possible reasons for this- which I think I touched on in an earlier post. His PDA causes fluid to back up into his lungs. The lungs having fluid in them makes it difficult for them to move blood to oxygenate it. This usually means baby has to be on higher ventilator settings- needs more oxygen and higher pressure to get oxygen to all his organs. The higher pressures and oxygen levels can cause more damage to his lungs, eyes and brain.

Right now, the doctors are treating the PDA and hoping Lucas will respond to the indomethacin medication to close the ductus without the complications he experienced two weeks ago. They have Lucas on a pain medicine that is on a continuous drip to stay ahead of his pain. They are continuing with the diuretic medicine and are considering putting baby back on the oscillating ventilator. They're increasing his IV fluids, adding another type of fluid to make sure Lucas is getting enough calories without the breast milk. Though they won't say specifically "Lucas has chronic lung disease" it is pretty much inevitable for his age and because he has been on a ventilator since birth. He is likely to remain on it for several more weeks. We're praying his lungs clear up without much intervention, his PDA will close with the medicing without complication and that we get back to having good days.

~Kristen

Find definitions for preemies at the link below:
http://preemies.about.com/od/preemiehealthproblems/f/What-Is-A-Micro-Preemie.htm