One Step Back

We just spoke to Farrah's nurse and doctor and learned that Farrah has had a small setback this evening after 8 pm. She had been doing so well with her breathing and they were able to wean a lot on her oxygen support on the vent during the past few days. Tonight, they did an x-ray after she seemed to be struggling out of nowhere and determined that she has a condition known as PIE (pulmonary interstitial emphesema) of her left lung. They re-intubated Farrah with a new breathing tube and started thinking about what would help Farrah. The quickest way to resolve this issue of PIE is to put her back on a high frequency vent, but instead of the oscillator, they are going to use a ventilator referred to as a jet. Her care team is not that concerned about this change, but we are taken aback by it. You'd think after all the ups and downs we have been through that we would be prepared for other setbacks. It gives us such a feeling of helplessness. Farrah has been doing so well this week and was clearly feeling much better too. This change means that she needs to be sedated more often since the jet shakes her body just like the oscillator did. Our little Farrah is not out of the woods yet. From what I read online, PIE is more often seen with preemies soon after their birth and Farrah is dealing with this issue nearly two months after her birth. We pray that this does not add any other complications to Farrah's NICU journey.

Farrah is still getting stronger each day, but her lungs aren't as strong. When I visited her yesterday, I watched as she lifted her head completely off her bed and turned to face forward. I couldn't believe I was watching her move so much. She is a fiesty little one! Farrah's nurse yesterday was not too worried about her movements as long as she didn't turn her head far enough to tub on her breathing tube. We were really hoping that all this improvement with her lungs was a sign that she was well on her way to the ram cannula, but it looks like our hopes were a bit premature. It is hard to see this setback. We were getting so close to be able to hold her again, and now that day is a little further away.

Since Farrah has been tolerating the fortifier so far, they increased her feeds to 9 ccs per hour. They probably won't make any other changes to her feedings until sometime next week. I almost forgot to mention that the lumbar puncture cultures came back negative, so they decided to stop the antibiotics. Farrah has been receiveing the antibiotics for 21 days now and there are no signs of an active infection. We pray that she won't get any more infections during the rest of her time in the NICU.

While we wish that this weekend would be restful with lots of Farrah time, unfortunately it looks like we will both be working a lot. This is a big car sales weekend for Ray, and I have comes to terms with the fact that it is expected of me to do whatever it takes to meet my work's deadlines.