January 30th, 2010

Since our last post, Kierson has been having small ups and downs but for the most part has been doing well. She has put on almost 1 full pound and has grown 4 inches in length. She is looking so different to us and despite her breathing difficulties, seems to be making her doctors proud.

I was working in the ED tonight when I got a call from my wife. I was in the middle of removing some staples from the scalp of a kiddo. One of the staples must have gone right through a little artery that, upon removal of the staple, shot a tiny pulsatile stream of blood from the top of his head. Holding pressure on the bleeder, I answered my phone. My wife's voice was shaky and I could tell that she had been crying. She was out with a friend spending a well-deserved night off from seeing Kierson three times a day and pumping every 3 hours. She told me that our neonatologist had just called. He told her that Kierson had stopped breathing and that they had to intubate her and were having trouble getting her oxygen saturations back up while bagging her. I asked my nurse to continue to hold pressure on my patient's head as I calmly walked out of the exam room and made my up to the NICU.

As I arrived at Kierson's bedside, there were 7 folks huddled around working on getting her stabilized. Her NNP brought me up to date. She was just now returning to normal oxygen saturations. I was told that she had dropped down to the 20-30% oxygen saturations and that her heart rate was in the 40s. They described her as mottled and cyanotic but now she had her normal pinkish hue again. I noted that she was moving all 4 extremities and was opening her eyes. She was also fighting the endotracheal tube. A plethora of labs and a CXR were ordered.

Her initial lab work didn't seem to indicate infection but more results are needed for confirmation. Her CXR looked slightly more opacified bilat but could be due to over-exposure (she already has terrible looking lungs which makes it difficult to note subtle changes...for me, probably not the radiologist).

Over the next several hours, Kierson had some more saturation drops immediately followed by heart rate drops. After suctioning she would slowly recover. She appeared to finally stabilize and we decided to go home for some rest as it was midnight and I had to work in the morning.

Please continue to pray for Kierson's damaged lungs that God would bring her complete healing and protect her from infection. We also ask for your prayers for our doctors and nurses that God would give them wisdom and insight into what processes are taking place so that early intervention can be instituted (they are a smart bunch, don't get me wrong...). Please pray for us as we are worn thin with a 7 month old precious little girl at home that needs our attention and love and a very sick preemie (now at 32 weeks) up at the hospital that's struggling to breathe on her own and now has failed (for unknown reasons).