[Gospelchristianity] FW: Update

[Harvey, Bo]

Good afternoon all,

 

I apologize for not getting an update out sooner on Ryleigh. Here it
goes:

 

Overall, Ryleigh has been doing very well. She is still receiving air
and oxygen via nasal cannula (no re-intubation - yeah!!). Her oxygen
requirements have been pretty steady, somewhere between 21-27%.

 

She had been on full feeds (all nourishment coming from mother's milk,
approximately 19 ml every 3 hours), and had been gaining weight. Last
Wednesday she weighed 2 pounds 8 ounces, which was an increase of almost
a full pound.

 

Towards the end of last week she had become lethargic, and was requiring
more heat to keep her temperature up. This usually is a sign of a sick
baby, so the physicians had a blood culture drawn and grown. The initial
culture did show an infection, so they repeated the culture and started
her on antibiotics. All follow-up cultures we negative, so the docs felt
this was probably a false positive (contaminated sample). 

 

This past Sunday Ryleigh's stomach became very engorged. Preemies tend
to be at risk for Necrotizing Enterocolitis (referred to as NEC), which
is an infectious inflammation of the intestines. NEC can be very
serious, with surgery sometimes required to resolve the problem. Since
NEC is so serious, the physicians were aggressive in treating her
symptoms.

 

She was put on antibiotics again, and they took frequent x-rays of her
belly to monitor for other internal symptoms. She received a blood
transfusion (preemies frequently get blood, as their body cannot produce
the increased volume they require). The docs also took her off of feeds
and put her back on IV nutrition. Since Sunday, she has lost a few
ounces, she is back down to around 2 pounds 6 ounces. But as of today
her stomach is back to a normal size, she is super spunky again, and
they are going to start feeding her tonight at 5:30 at a reduced volume
(5 ml every 3 hours), and build her intake back up again.

 

So, she is doing well, and should be back on track to continue to heal
and grow. There is always a risk of infection, or some other issue that
could arise, but lots of hard days are behind us. She was 6 weeks old on
Valentine's Day, and her adjusted gestational age is 31 weeks as of
today. She will more than likely be in the hospital until mid-to-late
April.

 

Thanks again for the prayers and thoughts. Please keep 'em coming,
Ryleigh can use them!!

 

More to come...

 

Thanks

Bo

 

 

 

 

 

___________________________________

 

Mathew 'Bo' Harvey

PDI

3407 S. 31st St.

Temple, Texas  76502

Office: 254.771.7100 

Cell:     254.541.0863

www.profdata.com

 

Do Business Electronically with PDI/Enterprise! 

 

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