One Step at a Time

As of Monday night, Farrah is back on the regular vent. Her weekend nurses were able to wean her oxygen to the point where she was on the lowest settings, and Monday's doctors decided to make the change. They moved Farrah to the vent at 12 noon, and so far she has tolerated the change wonderfully. They also did another echo (heart ultrasound) and determined that Farrah's heart looks great. There was a possibility of her having endocarditis because of the MRSA, but it is all clear. Plus, there is no evidence of the PDA coming back. What a relief that news is! At midnight, they changed Farrah from the giraffe bed back to a regular isolet. All good changes! As long as she can keep up with the regular vent, Ray and I should be able to hold Farrah again in the near future.

Tomorrow is another big day for Farrah. She will be having the lumbar puncture that I referred to a week or two ago. The infectious disease specialist who is overseeing her case recommended the lumbar puncture so they can be absolutely sure that there is no questionable signs of infection in Farrah's spinal fluid. We pray that it all goes smoothly and that the morphine will help Farrah tolerate the procedure well. She will also be having another head ultrasound to see if anything has changed after being so sick. The nurse practioner described everything as thoroughly looking at Farrah - head to toe.

The next step is to get Farrah on a fortifier. I learned today that Farrah is only in the third percentile in terms of growth, so I can now see why the doctors are pushing to add fortifier to her full feed feedings. We are hoping that we can try a new fortifier that is liquid, not powder, and that Farrah's tummy can handle it. If she cannot handle it, they will stop all feedings and go back to IV nutrition to give her tummy some time to recover. As of Monday, she weighs 3 pounds, 13 ounces.

In the words of one of Farrah's nurses's "Farrah still has a long way to go." Our energy is waning. Ray is gone for 10-12 hour stretches at his job and I am working my tail off at my job. We are both so tired at the end of the day and are lucky if we can get groceries purchased and laundry done in a week.

The baby shower this weekend was so much fun! It meant a lot to me that my grandmother, mother, and mother-in-law all made the trip to AZ to be there for the shower. Our local friends have been so supportive of us, and it was so nice to have many of them at the shower. Afterwards, my mother in law and I started to organize Farrah's bedroom. She now has lots of cute clothes and lots of blankets, toys, and bath supplies.